Joint Membership Research Articles

Pricing strategy for cross-market two-sided platforms based on joint membership system

Taking the joint membership system carried out by two cross-market bilateral platforms as the background, this paper studies how to achieve the optimal cooperation between two cross-market platforms, and analyzes the various influences brought by platform differences. Considering two cross-market two-sided platforms with differences basic services, we establish a horizontal cooperation model for cross-market bilateral platforms based on the joint membership system. Taking cross-network externalities as the starting point of the research, we compare and analyze the platform strategies under decentralized decision making and joint centralized decision making to obtain the benchmark for joint membership cooperation. Finally, we propose a two-part pricing mechanism that can make joint membership cooperation achieve the best, and analyze the impact of basic service differences on platform pricing, user participation, platform profits and coordination mechanism.

German-Polish Reconciliation and Sino-Japanese Reconciliation: Comparative Reflections

Certain parallels exist between the perception of Germany in Poland and Japan in China. This similarity was observed by Chinese historian Yinan He. Poland and China associate their neighbouring nations with a negative, bellicose stereotype that harks back to the Second World War. However, this war is perceived as merely the latest incident in a long history of transgressions. Post-war, both countries came under communist rule, further demonising the former enemy. In the 1970s, both China/Japan and Poland/(West) Germany set aside historical grievances in favour of immediate diplomatic normalisation. In the 1980s and 1990s in Poland, this superficial reconciliation evolved into genuine reconciliation, thanks largely to the efforts of the Catholic Church and the joint membership of Poland and a united Germany in NATO and the EU. Concurrently in Japan, but particularly in communist China, practices of elite mythmaking only served to accentuate historical animosities. In East Asia, there appears to be a mutual lack of willingness for true reconciliation and forgiveness

Alliance Complements or Substitutes? Explaining Bilateral Intergovernmental Strategic Partnership Ties

Since the end of the Cold War, informal security cooperation has been on the rise. Besides formal alliances, states are increasingly establishing so-called “strategic partnerships”. This new form of security cooperation is currently under-researched, although governments consider it an important foreign policy tool. We do not yet know whether security interests are the basis of these arrangements or whether strategic partnerships function as substitutes for or complements to formal alliances. This article addresses both issues by analyzing a new dataset on strategic partnerships with the involvement of G20 countries. I find that two or more states are most likely to be tied by partnerships when the presence of a common threat coincides with the absence of their joint membership in a formal alliance. However, states parties to a formal alliance with a lower commitment, such as a consultation, neutrality, or non-aggression pact, are also likely to be tied to each other by partnerships when they face a common threat.

President’s Message

Most of the work of health care providers is highly interactive and face-to-face. We depend on facial expressions and body language to help us deliver the best care to patients. Patients often say one thing (“No, I’m not in any pain”), but their faces and vital signs tell a different story. We all know and apply this axiom: watch what they do, not what they say. The person-to-person exchange of critical patient orders between and among providers literally mean life or death.Face-to-face professional networking and informal learning have taken a huge hit over the past 2 years of COVID-19. It has been particularly difficult for those of us working in smaller yet vitally important subspecialties such as vascular access and infusion therapy. Think about how many pearls of wisdom you received during interactions at AVA annual scientific conferences, lunch-and-learns, and local network and chapter dinner discussions in the prepandemic era.The benefits and positive energy we receive from face-to-face hallway conversations simply cannot be replaced by Zoom meetings and webinars, although these virtual options are certainly valuable. But whether you attend the annual AVA Scientific Meeting (AVASM22) or a meeting of your local AVA network, some of the benefits of face-to-face meetings are improved critical thinking skills, strengthening personal relationships with colleagues, building trust, career enhancement, better focus and learning, and improved communication and understanding.I hope you remember and deeply desire to rekindle your need for face-to-face community and shared learning and experiences. AVASM22 will fulfill those needs, provide you with all the benefits mentioned above, and more; it will be held September 30–October 3, 2022, at the Minneapolis (Minnesota) Convention Center. Premeeting workshops will take place September 29. Please continue to check the AVASM22 website for details and announcements.I am sure many of you are equally excited that most of the local AVA networks are holding face-to-face meetings now. Local networks are invaluable to vascular access and infusion providers because they often provide in-depth information on local nuances of state licensure, scopes of practice, and hospital and employer credentialing. AVA is proud to continue to support the 52 networks with the ongoing joint membership campaign of CARES (Competency-Action-Results-Education-Satisfaction) by AVA and many other activities. AVA typically accredits network meeting continuing education (CE) sessions.At AVASM22, attendees can earn up to 20 nursing CE credits and more if they attend a premeeting workshop. Over the past 2 years, AVA has hosted virtual scientific meetings, and it will continue to do so in 2022. This service is vitally important to people who cannot travel because of work and other commitments. AVA’s virtual conference has opened the door of our vital education sessions to dozens of countries outside North America. Virtual attendees can earn up to 11 CE credits and 10 more if they purchase the Premium CE option. AVA is in the process of gaining accreditation for respiratory therapists, infusion nurses, and physicians. Again, please watch the AVA website and social media for upcoming announcements.I am proud to say that AVA’s blinded selection of sessions and workshops is rigorous and competitive. In 2022, only 54% of sessions and workshops submitted were selected. The call for posters is similarly rigorous. All abstracts must include and are evaluated on the items below by subject matter experts: Purpose or goals statement reflect the presentation;Learning objectives are well stated and reflect the presentation;Content description is concise and comprehensive;Topic or subject is of interest to the AVA audience;Statement of risk of commercial bias is included;Overall submission is cohesive.Then the schedule is developed, taking into account the surveys and evaluations from previous meetings. The AVA D-Team ensures high-quality speakers, while also giving opportunities to new presenters, who address the most important and emerging topics in vascular access and infusion therapy.And finally, the AVA Board of Directors will continually review guidelines from the CDC and Minneapolis to ensure AVASM22 is the safest event we can deliver to our attendees, exhibitors, and staff. Our final list of safety precautions will be available no later than June 20, 2022. Because guidelines for events may change, please be sure to check back here for updates. There is a terrific message from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on the many restaurants and activities in this welcoming and safe city.I hope you agree that AVASM and network meetings are vital to the improvement of services and patient safety. Let’s all show up and be counted at face-to-face events this year: it’s the best way to work together.

SEEKING FRIENDS IN TROUBLED TIMES: THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF TRANSNATIONAL LGBT NETWORKS IN EUROPE*

Prior research demonstrates the importance of domestic associations joining transnational advocacy networks to create social change. Few studies, however, investigate how dynamic political opportunities influence the structure of crossnational networks. To address this gap, we analyze an original dataset of 3,103 domestic lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) associations in Europe connected through joint membership in 46 LGBT international nongovernmental organizations from 2010 to 2020. Results from network and multilevel analyses reveal a relatively unstable network that is centrally comprised of associations located in adverse political contexts. More specifically, advocacy associations located in adverse political contexts, but recently joining the European Union, are more likely to occupy central positions in the network. Although the structure of the network suggests LGBT organizations are countering traditional, hegemonic lines of stratification, the instability of central position undermines widely held assumptions about the relationship between power and centrality within these networks.

Reliability analysis model of time-dependent multi-mode system under fuzzy uncertainty: Applied to undercarriage structures

There lacks fuzzy reliability analysis model to assess the reliability level of time-dependent multi-mode system (T-sys) under fuzzy uncertainty, thus this paper defines T-sys failure possibility firstly to address this problem. Then fuzzy simulation is proposed for estimating the failure possibility of T-sys (T-sys-FS), in which the failure possibility estimation of T-sys is transformed into searching fuzzy design point, a failure point with the largest joint membership degree. To improve the efficiency of T-sys-FS for searching fuzzy design point, adaptive Kriging is inserted into T-sys-FS to establish a more efficient method shorten as T-sys-AK-FS. By use of the relationship between the failure state of T-sys and that of transient single mode, a new learning function is proposed in T-sys-AK-FS, on which the critical mode and critical instant may be selected for efficiently updating Kriging model of T-sys performance function. Additionally, based on the partial correct information provided by the current Kriging model and the properties of the fuzzy design point, an improved T-sys-AK-FS version (T-sys-AK-FSi) is proposed by combining the candidate sample pool reduction strategy, then the computational efficiency is enhanced further for searching the T-sys fuzzy design point. Several examples are presented to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methods.

By-Laws of the Bibliographical Society of America

By-Laws of the Bibliographical Society of America

A novel method for estimating the failure possibility by combining the adaptive Kriging model with the Markov chain simulation

Under the condition of fuzzy inputs, the structure safety level is generally measured by the failure possibility. Differing from the level cut optimization method and the fuzzy simulation method, a novel method for estimating the failure possibility is proposed in this paper by combining the adaptive Kriging surrogate model with the Markov chain simulation. Based on the principle of fuzzy simulation, the fuzzy design point is defined as the failure point with the maximal joint membership function in the fuzzy simulation sample pool, and the problem of estimating the failure possibility can be transformed into that of searching the fuzzy design point. Then the Markov chain simulation which can quickly simulate the samples in the interest region is employed to search the fuzzy design point by a designed transfer criteria. To efficiently recognize the candidate states of the Markov chain, the Kriging surrogate model is adaptively trained in the candidate sample pool generated by the Markov chain states. By replacing the actual performance function with the convergent Kriging model, the efficiency of Markov chain simulation can be improved greatly. The presented examples are used to prove the rationality and high efficiency of the proposed method.

Local sensitivity analysis of failure possibility and its universal solution by fuzzy simulation

Failure possibility (FP) is widely used to measure safety degree of structure in the presence of fuzzy uncertainty, but how to quantify the effect of fuzzy distribution parameter on FP is seldom investigated. For searching the important parameter to FP and guiding the FP-based design optimization, the local sensitivity of FP (LS-FP) is firstly defined by the partial derivative of FP with respect to the fuzzy distribution parameter in this paper. Then, the analytical solution is derived for the LS-FP in special cases; a universal algorithm is proposed to solve LS-FP by use of the fuzzy simulation. The proposed universal algorithm includes three creative steps. The first is explicitly expressing FP as the joint membership function of the fuzzy inputs at the fuzzy most possible failure point (F-MPP) by use of the fuzzy simulation, on which LS-FP can be equivalently transformed as the partial derivative of F-MPP with respect to the fuzzy distribution parameter. The second is using the characteristic of F-MPP to derive the analytical solution of the partial derivative of F-MPP. The third is establishing an efficient method to estimate F-MPP for completing LS-FP, where new learning function and stopping criterion are proposed to improve the computational efficiency. The proposed algorithm has no limitation on the nonlinearity of performance function and can be applied in any fuzzy membership distribution form of the fuzzy input. Several examples are used to validate the wide applicability, the accuracy, and the efficiency of the proposed algorithm to solve LS-FP.

Fuzzy importance sampling method for estimating failure possibility

To improve the computational efficiency of the fuzzy simulation in estimating failure possibility of the structure containing fuzzy uncertainty, a fuzzy importance sampling method is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, the optimal importance sampling density for estimating failure possibility is deduced as the product of the indicator function related to failure domain and the joint membership function of fuzzy model inputs at first. Subsequently, the Markov chain simulation and an adaptive kernel sampling method are employed to generate a group of samples asymptotically following the optimal importance sampling density. Based on this group of samples, an approximate expression of the optimal importance sampling density expression is constructed. Finally, the failure possibility can be efficiently estimated by using a small number of samples generated by the approximate optimal importance sampling density. Results of three examples demonstrate that the proposed method is a more efficient and robust method for estimating the failure possibility estimation compared with the original fuzzy simulation method.

A novel hypercube-based fuzzy simulation and its combination with adaptive Kriging for estimating failure credibility

How to accurately and efficiently estimate the failure credibility is widely concerned in safety analysis under fuzzy uncertainty. To solve this issue, an iterative method combining the adaptive Kriging with fuzzy simulation (AK-FS) was put forward by Ling et al. But for the problem with multidimensional fuzzy inputs and/or high safety degree, AK-FS is inefficient. In order to improve the computational efficiency of AK-FS, a novel hypercube-based fuzzy simulation (HBFS) combined with adaptive Kriging (shorten as AK-HBFS) is proposed in this paper. The first key technique of the proposed method is to develop the HBFS for constructing the candidate sampling pool. In the HBFS, the active point is defined at first. Then, the estimation of the failure credibility is transformed into seeking for the active point. By using an adaptive hypercube shrinkage strategy, the active point can be quickly searched from the samples whose joint membership functions (JMFs) are smaller than the JMF of the active point. Thus, the size of the candidate sampling pool in the AK-HBFS is smaller than that of the original AK-FS, and it helps save the training time of the Kriging model in the AK-HBFS compared to the AK-FS. The second key technique of the proposed method is that the process for finding the active point is efficiently realized by the U-learning function based AK model, rather than calling the true performance function directly. The merits of the proposed AK-HBFS are demonstrated by four test cases.

By-Laws of the Bibliographical Society of America

By-Laws of the Bibliographical Society of America

Mechanistic characterization of UDP-glucuronic acid 4-epimerase.

UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GlcA) is a central precursor in sugar nucleotide biosynthesis and common substrate for C4-epimerases and decarboxylases releasing UDP-galacturonic acid (UDP-GalA) and UDP-pentose products, respectively. Despite the different reactions catalyzed, the enzymes are believed to share mechanistic analogy rooted in their joint membership to the short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) protein superfamily: Oxidation at the substrate C4 by enzyme-bound NAD+ initiates the catalytic pathway. Here, we present mechanistic characterization of the C4-epimerization of UDP-GlcA, which in comparison with the corresponding decarboxylation has been largely unexplored. The UDP-GlcA 4-epimerase from Bacillus cereus functions as a homodimer and contains one NAD+ /subunit (kcat =0.25±0.01s-1 ). The epimerization of UDP-GlcA proceeds via hydride transfer from and to the substrate's C4 while retaining the enzyme-bound cofactor in its oxidized form (≥97%) at steady state and without trace of decarboxylation. The kcat for UDP-GlcA conversion shows a kinetic isotope effect of 2.0 (±0.1) derived from substrate deuteration at C4. The proposed enzymatic mechanism involves a transient UDP-4-keto-hexose-uronic acid intermediate whose formation is rate-limiting overall, and is governed by a conformational step before hydride abstraction from UDP-GlcA. Precise positioning of the substrate in a kinetically slow binding step may be important for the epimerase to establish stereo-electronic constraints in which decarboxylation of the labile β-keto acid species is prevented effectively. Mutagenesis and pH studies implicate the conserved Tyr149 as the catalytic base for substrate oxidation and show its involvement in the substrate positioning step. Collectively, this study suggests that based on overall mechanistic analogy, stereo-electronic control may be a distinguishing feature of catalysis by SDR-type epimerases and decarboxylases active on UDP-GlcA.

Examining the management of stake and interest in a participatory design Facebook group

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the micro-dynamics of a participatory design (PD) Facebook group for breast screening. We argue that using online PD methods enables participants to be fully involved throughout the research process and can lead to meaningful outcomes and impact for the research. However, it is important to ensure that all stakeholders are able to be equally involved in the research. As such, understanding how a user’s stake or interest is managed can help to uncover how professionals and lay people can participate together in such groups. A case study approach is adopted, with an example presented from a PD Facebook group established to develop a web resource around breast screening. 70 threads from the Facebook group were analysed in a naturalistic way using discursive psychology. The analysis shows how participants aimed to manage the dilemma of being seen as interested due to their professional identities, and did so in a number of ways including referring to joint membership of the design group. However, there were still challenges in ensuring that lay members’ contributions were not diminished by more professional members. The analysis suggests that in an online PD group, moderators may be needed to ensure that potential conflicts of interest are managed appropriately and all members’ views are heard.

Individual and joint trajectories of change in bone, lean mass and physical performance in older men

BackgroundDeclines in bone, muscle and physical performance are associated with adverse health outcomes in older adults. However, few studies have described concurrent age-related patterns of change in these factors. The purpose of this study was to characterize change in four properties of muscle, physical performance, and bone in a prospective cohort study of older men.MethodsUsing repeated longitudinal data from up to four visits across 6.9 years from up to 4681 men (mean age at baseline 72.7 yrs. ±5.3) participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study, we used group-based trajectory models (PROC TRAJ in SAS) to identify age-related patterns of change in four properties of muscle, physical performance, and bone: total hip bone mineral (BMD) density (g/m2) and appendicular lean mass/ht2 (kg/m2), by DXA; grip strength (kg), by hand dynamometry; and walking speed (m/s), by usual walking pace over 6 m. We also described joint trajectories in all pair-wise combinations of these measures. Mean posterior probabilities of placement in each trajectory (or joint membership in latent groups) were used to assess internal reliability of the model. The number of trajectories for each individual factor was limited to three, to ensure that the pair-wise determination of joint trajectories would yield a tractable number of groups as well as model fit considerations.ResultsThe patterns of change identified were generally similar for all measures, with three district groups declining over time at roughly similar rates; joint trajectories revealed similar patterns with no cross-over or convergence between groups. Mean posterior probabilities for all trajectories were similar and consistently above 0.8 indicating reasonable model fit to the data.ConclusionsOur description of trajectories of change with age in bone mineral density, grip strength, walking speed and appendicular lean mass found that groups identified by these methods appeared to have little crossover or convergence of change with age, even when considering joint trajectories of change in these factors.

An efficient computational method for estimating failure credibility by combining genetic algorithm and active learning Kriging

Failure credibility is popular in measuring safety degree of structure under fuzzy uncertainty due to its excellent property of self-duality. Existing methods for estimating failure credibility can be mainly divided into two categories, i.e., the simulation-based methods and the optimization-based methods. The simulation-based methods are universal and robust, but time-consuming in dealing with high-dimensional problems. The optimization-based methods are efficient and flexible, but the precision of the failure credibility estimate will be impacted by the local optimum solution resulted from some optimization techniques. Thus, in order to overcome the disadvantages of existing methods, an efficient method by combining genetic algorithm and active learning Kriging (AK-GA) is proposed to estimate failure credibility in this paper. Firstly, by use of the fuzzy simulation, the estimation of failure credibility is transformed into finding for the failure/safety sample that processes the maximum joint membership function (MF) from the fuzzy simulation pool, which makes the credibility estimation less difficult to be computed. Secondly, the genetic algorithm is used to find the failure/safety sample with maximum joint MF. Thirdly, to drastically improve the computational efficiency of the proposed method, active learning Kriging is embedded to accurately and efficiently distinguish the failure and safety sample in computing the fitness function of genetic algorithm. Four mathematical and engineering test examples are used to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed AK-GA for estimating failure credibility.

By-Laws of the Bibliographical Society of America

By-Laws of the Bibliographical Society of America

Moral hazard at sea: how alliances actually increase low-level maritime provocations between allies

ABSTRACTThe management of maritime claims is becoming an important issue in the study of interstate conflict. Since World War II, most contested maritime claims have been associated with low-level conflict (mainly shows of force, or what we call maritime provocations) and have not resulted in fatalities. However, what is puzzling is that many competing claims are also associated with states that are alliance partners. To explain this puzzle, we trace the management of maritime claims to states’ participation in different types of security institutions. We argue that joint membership in highly institutionalized security organizations, namely defensive alliances, provides aggrieved challenger states with the opportunity to undermine the position of defending states by using low-level maritime provocations. The alliance has an incentive to provide an institutional security umbrella to maintain its organization’s strength and continuity. High levels of commitment to defensive alliances provide a challenger state with the opportunity to behave provocatively without risking an escalation of the conflict or severely damaging its reputation within the alliance. We test our theory using data on all maritime claims and their associated militarization attempts in the Western Hemisphere and Europe from 1900 to 2001 from the Issue Correlates of War (ICOW) project.

Improving weather radar precipitation maps: A fuzzy logic approach

Weather radar can provide spatially explicit precipitation grids. However interference, ground clutter and various causes of attenuation introduce uncertainty into the result. Typically, rain gauge observations, recognized as a precise measure of precipitation at point locations, are used to adjust weather radar grids to obtain more accurate precipitation maps. This adjustment involves one or more of various geostatistic techniques. Yet, since gauges are sparsely located, a geostatistic approach is sometimes limited or even not applicable. This work adopts an alternative to radar adjustment by merging location-based variables with rain grids from weather radar. Recognizing that location-based variables: elevation, slope, aspect and distance from the coast all affect precipitation, these are applied to the original weather radar grid to produce an altered precipitation distribution. The merging procedure presented here uses fuzzy logic, whereby all variables, as well as the original radar are assigned probabilities known as membership functions (MF), then a joint membership function (JMF) combines all MFs in the fuzzy set, each multiplied by its weight, to create a precipitation probability grid. This JMF probability grid is validated with gauge observation data. We show up to 30% higher correlation coefficients between gauges and the JMF grid than between gauges and the original radar. The improved correlation results from the flexibility of fuzzy logic in transforming location-based variables to probabilities.

The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies

The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies