Information Space Research Articles

Cybersecurity and geopolitical dimensions of external information interventions in Ukraine: Analysis of current trends

Introduction: From the year 2019, the country has experienced a series of cyber incidents affecting its key areas of infrastructure such as energy, finance, communication, government, healthcare, and technology. Purpose: This work aims to define and explain the contemporary threats in the sphere of cyber security, as well as the geopolitical aspect of external interference in Ukraine’s information space for the years 2019-2024. Method: Sources used to gather data for this research were government and cybersecurity firm reports, academic articles, news articles from reliable media houses, and social media listening tools. Quantitative data collected by statistical tools analyzed the trend as well as the intensity of cyber threats. They also included specific case exhibits as well as interviews with the experts to get more information. Results: The study indicated that there will be improved and more frequent attacks and that these will be more complex from 2019 to 2024 in Ukraine. It caused moderate disruption to the key sectors but the disruptions were especially noticed in sectors such as energy, finance, communication, government, healthcare, and technology. Conflict events in Donbas, the COVID-19 outbreak, the enhancement of military tensions, and the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 were associated with increases in the level of cyber efforts. Conclusion: The conclusion points out that Ukraine needs effective international cooperation, the highest level of technological protection, and profound geopolitical analysis to safeguard cyberspace and prevent conflicts in Eastern Europe

Преодоление последствий глобализации на примере взаимодействия государства и Русской Православной Церкви в информационной сфере

Introduction. The article considers the problem of overcoming the consequences of globalization in the context of informatization of society using the example of interaction between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church in the information sphere. The following methods were used in the study: system analysis, philosophical analysis, interpretation, comparison and synthesis. Theoretical analysis. The State and the Church, as active users of the information resources and technologies available today, have a significant impact on their development. Many hierarchs and laypeople, adhering to “protective” views, represented by an established political course, continue to participate in the media sphere. The participation of the Church and the state makes it possible to maintain political stability in the country. It is pointed out that, on the one hand, the spiritual and moral crisis of modern society is caused by informatization as one of the conditions for its development, but on the other hand, informatization permeates all areas of life and activity, both of the Church and the state, to such extent that neglecting its resources is impossible today. Conclusion. The characteristic features of the Church and the state which, with the help of information resources and technologies, are trying to resist the negative consequences of globalization and Westernization, are highlighted and described. The ways of solving these problems are outlined. It is emphasized that the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church and the state authorities are interested in consolidating efforts aimed at resolving the numerous social contradictions that exist in the information space today.

Multi-scale locality preserving projection for partial multi-view incomplete multi-label learning

Amidst advancements in feature extraction techniques, research on multi-view multi-label classifications has attracted widespread interest in recent years. However, real-world scenarios often pose a challenge where the completeness of multiple views and labels cannot be ensured. At present, only a handful of techniques have attempted to address the complex issue of partial multi-view incomplete multi-label classification, and the majority of these approaches overlook the significance of manifold structures between instances. To tackle these challenges, we propose a novel partial multi-view incomplete multi-label learning model, termed MSLPP. Differing from existing studies, MSLPP emphasizes retaining the effective inherent structure of data during the feature extraction process, thereby facilitating a richer semantic information extraction. Specifically, MSLPP captures and integrates four types of information: the distance and similarity information in the original feature space, and the distance and similarity information in the extracted feature space. Further, by adopting the graph embedding technique, it simultaneously preserves the intrinsic structure with multi-scale information through a constraint term. Moreover, taking into account the negative impact of the missing views on the model and the possible impact of missing views on the data inherent structure, we further propose a shielding strategy for missing views, which not only eliminates the negative effects of missing views on the model but also more accurately captures the inherent data structure. The experimental results on five widely recognized datasets indicate that the model performs better than many excellent methods.

The right to use artificial intelligence technology: new challenges and threats to humans

The beginning of the new millennium is the period of the formation of a single information space, the formation of a global information society, the main factor in the development of which is the use of information. The processes of global informatization have a dual nature: on the one hand, they contribute to the security of the individual, society and the state, and on the other hand, information technologies pose certain threats to it. The article analyzes the possibilities of using artificial intelligence (AI) as a type of information technology (IT). Emphasis is placed on the positive and negative aspects of its impact on human rights. It was found that certain threats to humans arise when using the latest AI technologies. As a result of the analysis of international documents, it was established that the governments of many countries around the world are currently trying to protect users of digital services from its harmful effects, developing their strategies for the development and regulation of AI for this purpose. The emergence of the latest technologies has given rise to a number of new problems in the field of human rights. This is evidenced by a number of international documents on «digital human rights». So, for example, the «Portuguese Charter of Human Rights in the Digital Age», «Lisbon Declaration», «European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles of the Digital Decade» in their provisions, on the one hand, emphasize the rights to use AI technologies, and on the other – on the safety of these technologies for humans. This caused heated discussions among scientists in the context of human information rights: whether AI as a type of information technology can be a safe means for realizing the human right to use it, and whether it can claim the status of a kind of «subject of law» in the future, which is a threat to human rights. The understanding of these problems caused by the development of AI has already become a joint task not only of scientists in the field of law, but also of scientists in the social sciences and humanities, as well as developers of computer programs.

Methodological aspects of research in information security

The article discusses the research methodology of the basics of information security. A special place is given to the selection of methodological research tools. This selection was made on the basis of the exclusive importance of the field of information provision in interaction with other directions of state building and national security. At the same time, we note that the raised issue has an interdisciplinary nature due to its inherent legal and structural nature: legal, economic (technological), and moral and psychological components. Under such conditions, the philosophical-dialectical method is extremely important in view of its epistemological nature, which will contribute to the derivation of the author’s conclusions and judgments, which will be characterized by consistency and continuity. The conducted analysis made it possible to reveal that the current summary in terms of understanding the role and significance of the methodological component for the results of our research is the following: from the point of view of the methodology of legal science, the paradigm of information security has a complex structure, which is formed by the elements: law enforcement methodology, the legislation of Ukraine, the systematics of legal norms, explanations of the legal norm, the procedure for implementing the provisions of the law, the legal policy of the state in the field of information security, media culture and media ethics in the application of legislation that regulates the issue of complete access of citizens to sources of information, tactical and strategic directions of activities of entities ensuring security in the use of information, the effectiveness of the application of legislation , law-enforcement examination of departmental regulations regulating relations in the field of information security. Attention is drawn to the fact that any of the listed structural elements of a complete complex of information security can serve as the object of a separate scientific study. The above studies revealed that the selected methodological tools for solving the task of our scientific intelligence will contribute to the professional research of the in-depth component processes of the implementation of measures in the areas of protection of the information space of Ukraine. The application of methodological techniques will allow us to more fully and comprehensively reveal the role of the information security institute in the development of our ideas about the system of measures to ensure the information hygiene of the Ukrainian media, public-legal and private-legal intellectual space, to identify new aspects in its structure and elemental composition.

Right to information: legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine

The article reveals the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding everyone’s right to information. Attention is focused on information that is collected by state authorities, local self-government bodies, institutions and organizations, and which is not a state or other secret protected by the Law of Ukraine «On Information» and which every person has the right to familiarize himself with. Separate attention is focused on confidential information (information with limited access). One of the types of confidential information is medical information, which, on the one hand, in special cases provided for by the Fundamentals of the Health Care Legislation of Ukraine, can be disclosed to family members or a legal representative of the patient, and on the other hand, in accordance with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights person in the case of «M.K. against Ukraine» confirmation by a doctor of a patient’s illness to a member of his family, even if he learned about it from the patient himself, is an interference by the state in a person’s right to private life, and in the case of infectious diseases, it is qualified as not carried out «in accordance with the law». Attention is focused on the fact that such situations arise more and more when military personnel undergo medical examinations and that there are prohibitive norms of a special law that forbid the disclosure of medical information regarding a certain list of diseases of a military personnel to his employer (military unit), commander, family members of the military personnel. Regarding the confidentiality of information and about a person who holds a position related to the performance of the functions of the state, local self-government bodies, and about members of his family, the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine are established: absolutely in each specific case it is determined whether information about a person belongs to confidential; there are guarantees of protection of the rights of the above-mentioned persons, and additional legal burdens, and therefore the state is called upon to ensure a balance of public and private interest. The article also draws attention to the fact that even under martial law conditions, control (direct; indirect) by institutions of public power is prohibited both in terms of content and dissemination of information, even if the state pursues such a goal as protecting the information space from what is considered harmful by the state information that is not necessary for society. The practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine on this issue is established. Attention is focused on the fact that censorship cannot be used in Ukraine to protect the information field of the state even in war conditions - it is prohibited in part 3 of Art. 15 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

Aspects of information and spiritual similarity of real and virtual spaces

The results of numerous studies demonstrate the possibility of using the same approaches to studying real and virtual space in the context of their spatial perception. The study of virtual space can be carried out using the same parameters as physical space, and they should be considered equivalent. Virtual space is only one of the strategies for information copying of real space, the result of an irresistible human need to expand the horizons of research. Virtual space does not pose any threat to reality if we interpret the virtual environment as a transformation of the real environment, a new way of studying the mutual penetration of the virtual and real worlds. Learning to navigate in virtual space leads to safer life in real space.

Considerations on sentiment of social network posts as a feature of destructive impacts

Nowadays, people spend a lot of time in the information space, communicating within various social platforms. Content of those platforms can influence people’s feelings and personalities, which is especially relevant for young people. In this research, we made an attempt to prove this hypothesis. For the experiment, we selected the VKontakte social network and analysed users profiles together with the results of the psychological tests passed by them. The goal of the experiment was to find correlations between the information provided within the social network communities and the users’ personalities. Moreover, in this paper, we made an attempt to enhance the results of the classifier accuracy using the sentiment analysis. The experiments were conducted to test the sentiment analysis models, to analyse the proposed feature based on posts’ sentiment, and test the classifier for the detection of the potentially destructive impacts. The analysis of the correlation of the proposed feature with the communities that have potentially destructive impacts on anxiety is conducted. The analysis of the obtained results is provided. During the experiments, the authors found out that consideration of the posts’ sentiment allows increasing accuracy of the classifier for anxiety destructive impacts on 12.24 %. Additionally, we analysed the relationship between the user sentiments metric and destructiveness. We confirmed that the assessment of the user’s posts’ sentiment can be used to compile his psychological characteristics and determine possibility of destructiveness.

Philosophical Foundations of Transformation in the Information Space in the New Uzbekistan

The article analyzes the philosophical foundations of information space transformation. The solution to the general philosophical problem of information as an attribute of matter in the modern world is researched. Also, this issue, in turn, is the subject of debates between attributive and functional approaches, supporters of the functional approach associate the phenomenon of information with the existence of the subject of knowledge, rejecting its functionality at the level of inorganic systems. The conclusions of the supporters of the attributive approach that information is a general characteristic, an attribute of organic and inorganic natural matter, are stated.

Automation of Computations in Designing an Integrated Energy System Based on Its Digital Twin

The construction of integrated energy systems (IESs) based on traditional energy systems operating separately provides higher efficiency and reliability of energy supply to consumers. However, IESs are complex structures to design. A digital twin is a tool that allows you to combine all the tools necessary for design in a single information space. Software tools that implement the digital twin of IESs require high computational flexibility, which is due to the need to simulate a variety of equipment and involve a wide range of methods and mathematical models. Automating the construction process of a computing subsystem is a highly efficient solution for overcoming the challenges mentioned above. This paper proposes a methodological approach to automating the construction of the computing subsystem of the digital twin of an IES. The proposed approach involves using modern metaprogramming tools on a software platform to perform automated construction. During construction, the Model-Driven Engineering concept is implemented and knowledge formalized in the form of ontologies is used. The digital twin, obtained as a result of the practical application of the proposed methodological approach, enables computer and mathematical modeling of an IES in virtual space, with exploration of various configurations of its construction.

Media as an instrument of Russia's information policy

This article explores the role of the media in the implementation of the state information policy, as well as the possibility of domestic media to become a key tool in the information confrontation with unfriendly countries. Among the main threats in the Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation is the increase in the use of information-psychological influence technologies by intelligence services of certain states, aimed at destabilising the internal political, social and economic situation in various regions of the world, leading to the undermining of sovereignty and violation of territorial integrity of other states. The influence of the media on mass consciousness remains, without exaggeration, extensive, despite the radical changes in the landscape of the media environment caused by the spread of the Internet. In the era of digitalisation, the information space is undergoing significant transformations, which also concern the methods of media influence on mass consciousness. The Internet, having become a global communication platform, has provided the media not only with new channels for content distribution, but also increased their influence through personalisation and algorithmic filtering of information. The author examines the methodology and principles of information flows application in the context of information warfare. The author also analyses the use of media not only as an information intermediary, but also as a conduit of values, ideology and positive image of Russia.

Disconnected Connections of Learning Beyond Formal Schooling Through Human–Computer–Human Interactions

AbstractThis article originated from a working group on “Learning beyond formal schooling through human–computer–human interaction (HCHI)” convened at the UNESCO EDUSummIT 2023 in Kyoto (Japan). A polylogue approach was adopted by engaging eight co-authors whose diverse perspectives culminated in propositions that addressed the pivotal question: How should the connections between formal, non-formal, and informal learning be considered in a digitally mediated world? Formal learning is typically structured, organized and chronologically arranged institutional learning, whereas informal learning is associated with everyday learning across contexts throughout one’s life, and non-formal learning is a hybrid of these forms of learning. Considering the growing prominence of informal and non-formal learning in a digitally mediated world, the evolving learning ecosystem calls for a recalibration of the emphasis on formal learning. In this regard, HCHI has the potential to mediate human–human interactions, thereby bridging formal and informal learning. Our articulated position is to preserve the distinct boundaries and inherent complexities of each type of learning while creating opportunities or ‘bridges’ to authentically draw on the processes of each through meaningful actions. The polylogue yielded three propositions to bridge the connections between formal, non-formal and informal learning spaces in a digitally mediated world: (a) formal education institutions can establish strategic alliances and collaborations with learning organizations beyond the formal educational system, (b) the creation of digital learning communities within formal and non-formal spaces exemplify a paradigm of operation in an unregulated, student-centric cohesive space where the educator is a co-participant, (c) the recognition of the value of informal learning experiences by formal education institutions is critical, with emphasis on the learning process rather than the product.

Ecolinguistic and linguopragmatic aspects of the information space of regional media (using the example of the news headings “Sport” and “Tourism”)

Ecolinguistic and linguopragmatic aspects of the information space of regional media (using the example of the news headings “Sport” and “Tourism”)

What can attribution methods show us about chemical language models?

Language models trained on molecular string representations have shown strong performance in predictive and generative tasks. However, practical applications require not only making accurate predictions, but also explainability - the ability to explain the reasons and rationale behind the predictions. In this work, we explore explainability for a chemical language model by adapting a transformer-specific and a model-agnostic input attribution technique. We fine-tune a pretrained model to predict aqueous solubility, compare training and architecture variants, and evaluate visualizations of attributed relevance. The model-agnostic SHAP technique provides sensible attributions, highlighting the positive influence of individual electronegative atoms, but does not explain the model in terms of functional groups or explain how the model represents molecular strings internally to make predictions. In contrast, the adapted transformer-specific explainability technique produces sparse attributions, which cannot be directly attributed to functional groups relevant to solubility. Instead, the attributions are more characteristic of how the model maps molecular strings to its latent space, which seems to represent features relevant to molecular similarity rather than functional groups. These findings provide insight into the representations underpinning chemical language models, which we propose may be leveraged for the design of informative chemical spaces for training more accurate, advanced and explainable models.

An ecological approach to understanding transitions and tensions in complex learning contexts

The move away from transmission-based lecturing toward a more student-centred active learning approach is well evidenced in STEM higher education. However, the examination of active learning has generally remained confined to formal timetabled contexts, with assumptions made that students independently manage the transition between timetabled and non-timetabled learning. This paper introduces research findings from a mixed methods study that used an ecological approach when investigating student transitions between a formal lecture theatre and adjacent informal breakout space in a UK STEM university. Using quantitative occupancy monitoring data to analyse usage patterns of both spaces, in combination with qualitative ethnographic observations and field interviews, permitted a purposeful exploration of student engagement with transitions within and between the two learning spaces. The ecological approach aided the discovery of spatial, pedagogic and agentic transitions and tensions, which subsequently informed strategic modification of space across the institution to facilitate the adoption of active learning pedagogy.

Moral responsibility of russian citizens for aggression against Ukraine as a factor of pressure on their political will

The article focuses on the need to actualize the issue of bringing russian citizens to moral responsibility for violation of universal human values and other moral obligations of a person, which is expressed in their support for a large-scale war against Ukraine and the aggressive policy of the russian federation in general. In this vein, the author rethinks the concept of moral responsibility, argues for the inclusion of both individual and collective moral subjects, and highlights the impact of the means of moral responsibility on the formation of consciousness and, especially, the political will of the moral subject. In the discussion with other scholars, the author proposes that the subjects of collective responsibility include those structures, communities, and social groups that act as a collective actor, demonstrate their internal identity and are mutually responsible. The article argues that the russian public, which politically supports the current regime, is objectively a direct subject of the war and, accordingly, bears the full measure of direct political and moral guilt for the actions of its state and their consequences. It is proposed to call the supporters of the war “agents of war”, which will highlight their moral culpability. Therefore, it is important that not only the leadership of the russian federation, but also the entire russian public realise their part of the blame for the russian-Ukrainian war. It is proposed to incriminate moral and political culpability of russian citizens for the military aggression against Ukraine and to carry out information activities in order to make them aware of their personal and solidarity share of guilt and responsibility for this aggression. In order to give the moral condemnation of russian citizens a targeted and universal impact, the author argues for the establishment of a special international moral tribunal to encourage moral actors to fulfill their moral obligations, which will simultaneously contribute to the improvement of the security sphere of humanity. It is not about creating an official administrative structure, but about introducing a single humanistic information space that will counter this aggression. It is believed that it is in the form of a moral and ethical tribunal that the efforts of civilized countries, political, national and religious movements can be effectively united in the general condemnation of the russian aggression, its violation of human norms of goodness and justice, peace and secure existence. The central paradigm of the tribunal should be the phenomenon of safe human existence, human life as a value that excludes aggressive state policy and encroachment on human rights and freedoms. We believe that today, in counteracting russian information and psychological operations, we should focus more on the moral collective guilt and responsibility of all russian citizens who still stand in the position of not resisting evil.

КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНЫЙ ПОДХОД К ПОСТРОЕНИЮ ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЙ ТЕХНОЛОГИИ РЕШЕНИЯ ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ ЗАДАЧ МОНИТОРИНГА КООПЕРАЦИИ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТИ В ЦЕЛЯХ ОБЕСПЕЧЕННОСТИ ПРОДУКЦИЕЙ, ИЗДЕЛИЯМИ И КОМПЛЕКТУЮЩИМИ

A conceptual approach to the construction of information technology for monitoring products, products and components at industrial enterprises is proposed. The accounting of product movement is considered as a task of monitoring in logistics, which means the information flow corresponding to the product about the condition and movement of products, the management of which allows to achieve new competitive advantages for enterprises in the market. Design and technological solutions were used in the form of information technology elements for solving the monitoring problem, which is the novelty of the work. Conclusions are drawn about the need to create a unified information space and information technology for monitoring products, products and components as a tool for logistical support of industrial enterprise management processes.

Integrating, Validating, and Expanding Information Space in Single-Molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Biomolecules.

Single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SM-SERS) is an ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopic method for directly obtaining the complex vibrational mode information on individual molecules. SM-SERS offers a wide range of submolecular information on the hidden heterogeneity in its functional groups and varying structures, dynamics of conformational changes, binding and reaction kinetics, and interactions with the neighboring molecule and environment. Despite the richness in information on individual molecules and potential of SM-SERS in various detection targets, including large and complex biomolecules, several issues and practical considerations remain to be addressed, such as the requirement of long integration time, challenges in forming reliable and controllable interfaces between nanostructures and biomolecules, difficulty in determining hotspot size and shape, and most importantly, insufficient signal reproducibility and stability. Moreover, utilizing and interpreting SERS spectra is challenging, mainly because of the complexity and dynamic nature of molecular fingerprint Raman spectra, and this leads to fragmentary analysis and incomplete understanding of the spectra. In this Perspective, we discuss the current challenges and future opportunities of SM-SERS in views of system approaches by integrating molecules of interest, Raman dyes, plasmonic nanostructures, and artificial intelligence, particularly for detecting and analyzing biomolecules to realize the validation and expansion of information space in SM-SERS.

ECF-Net: Enhanced, Channel-Based, Multi-Scale Feature Fusion Network for COVID-19 Image Segmentation

Accurate segmentation of COVID-19 lesion regions in lung CT images aids physicians in analyzing and diagnosing patients’ conditions. However, the varying morphology and blurred contours of these regions make this task complex and challenging. Existing methods utilizing Transformer architecture lack attention to local features, leading to the loss of detailed information in tiny lesion regions. To address these issues, we propose a multi-scale feature fusion network, ECF-Net, based on channel enhancement. Specifically, we leverage the learning capabilities of both CNN and Transformer architectures to design parallel channel extraction blocks in three different ways, effectively capturing diverse lesion features. Additionally, to minimize irrelevant information in the high-dimensional feature space and focus the network on useful and critical information, we develop adaptive feature generation blocks. Lastly, a bidirectional pyramid-structured feature fusion approach is introduced to integrate features at different levels, enhancing the diversity of feature representations and improving segmentation accuracy for lesions of various scales. The proposed method is tested on four COVID-19 datasets, demonstrating mIoU values of 84.36%, 87.15%, 83.73%, and 75.58%, respectively, outperforming several current state-of-the-art methods and exhibiting excellent segmentation performance. These findings provide robust technical support for medical image segmentation in clinical practice.

Dynamic uncertainty propagation analysis framework for nonlinear control problem based on manifold learning and optimal polynomial method and its application on active suspension system

A novel uncertainty propagation method based on manifold learning and optimal polynomial model is proposed to quantify and analyze the dynamic uncertainties of the nonlinear feedback control system. To deal with the multiple objectives and constraints of the nonlinear control problem, a barrier Lyapunov-function-based nonlinear filtered backstepping controller is developed and applied to active suspension system to obtain superior ride comfort performance under limited structural constraints. Considering the errors in the production, manufacturing, and assembly, the probability density function is employed to quantify the structural parameter uncertainties in the nonlinear control system. Moreover, to reveal the dynamic propagation mechanism of uncertainties in the system with nonlinearity, the manifold learning method is proposed to reduce the dimensionality of the dynamic system to avoid the complexity of uncertainty propagation. Simultaneously, data-driven optimal polynomial model is utilized to accurately approximate the internal mechanism of nonlinear filtered backstepping control system. Based on that, the response uncertainties of the nonlinear control system are accurately and quickly quantified through dynamic moment information and uncertain fluctuation space. Finally, an active suspension system with nonlinearities and uncertainties is developed to verify the effectiveness of the controller with improved ride comfort and better handling safety and the superiority of the framework in terms of efficiency and accuracy of the dynamic uncertainty propagation analysis for nonlinear control problem.