Network Building Research Articles

Network resonance can be generated independently at distinct levels of neuronal organization.

Resonance is defined as maximal response of a system to periodic inputs in a limited frequency band. Resonance may serve to optimize inter-neuronal communication, and has been observed at multiple levels of neuronal organization. However, it is unknown how neuronal resonance observed at the network level is generated and how network resonance depends on the properties of the network building blocks. Here, we first develop a metric for quantifying spike timing resonance in the presence of background noise, extending the notion of spiking resonance for in vivo experiments. Using conductance-based models, we find that network resonance can be inherited from resonances at other levels of organization, or be intrinsically generated by combining mechanisms across distinct levels. Resonance of membrane potential fluctuations, postsynaptic potentials, and single neuron spiking can each be generated independently of resonance at any other level and be propagated to the network level. At all levels of organization, interactions between processes that give rise to low- and high-pass filters generate the observed resonance. Intrinsic network resonance can be generated by the combination of filters belonging to different levels of organization. Inhibition-induced network resonance can emerge by inheritance from resonance of membrane potential fluctuations, and be sharpened by presynaptic high-pass filtering. Our results demonstrate a multiplicity of qualitatively different mechanisms that can generate resonance in neuronal systems, and provide analysis tools and a conceptual framework for the mechanistic investigation of network resonance in terms of circuit components, across levels of neuronal organization.

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE LAND IN THE STRUCTURE OF POLTAVA REGION REGIONAL ECO NETWORK

In order to improve the healthy environment conditions formation, increase natural resource potential of the regions of Ukraine, fully preserve biotic and landscape diversity, maintain ecological balance of ecosystems, national and regional ecological networks are being developed. Theoretical and methodological approaches to the development of the regional ecological network have been developed for Poltava region. The article is devoted to the idea of expanding the concept of regional ecological network building in Poltava region at the expense of organic farming lands, the use of which is based on technologies appliance and resources that promote ecological balance in natural systems and sustainable and balanced agroecosystems. They are considered not only as objects of economic activity, but also as centers of biodiversity conservation, including natural ones. Information on the principles of organic farming implementingexperience in the Poltava region in activities of agricultural enterprises «Agrofirma «Mayak» (Poltava district) and «Agroecologiia» (Myrhorod and Poltava districts), which provides for the use of environmentally friendly agronomic and biocenotic agricultural measures in the Poltava region. It is determined that one of the effective ways to preserve lands used for organic farming is their preservation and including them into the regional ecological network as important natural resource components. It is advisable to protect the land of organic farming in the national natural and regional landscape parks by introducing them into economic zones, which provide for their traditional rational use.

Cybersecurity Threats and Their Mitigation Approaches Using Machine Learning—A Review

Machine learning is of rising importance in cybersecurity. The primary objective of applying machine learning in cybersecurity is to make the process of malware detection more actionable, scalable and effective than traditional approaches, which require human intervention. The cybersecurity domain involves machine learning challenges that require efficient methodical and theoretical handling. Several machine learning and statistical methods, such as deep learning, support vector machines and Bayesian classification, among others, have proven effective in mitigating cyber-attacks. The detection of hidden trends and insights from network data and building of a corresponding data-driven machine learning model to prevent these attacks is vital to design intelligent security systems. In this survey, the focus is on the machine learning techniques that have been implemented on cybersecurity data to make these systems secure. Existing cybersecurity threats and how machine learning techniques have been used to mitigate these threats have been discussed. The shortcomings of these state-of-the-art models and how attack patterns have evolved over the past decade have also been presented. Our goal is to assess how effective these machine learning techniques are against the ever-increasing threat of malware that plagues our online community.

Preparing for Mental Health Act reform: Pilot study of co-produced implementation strategies for Advance Choice Documents.

Background Advance Decision Making (ADM) is strongly supported by stakeholders but implementation remains challenging. In England and Wales, implementation strategies are urgently required to prepare for the introduction of mental health 'Advance Choice Documents' (ACDs) as part of Mental Health Act reforms. We report on a pilot project which aimed to co-produce and evaluate implementation strategies for ACDs with those who experience fluctuating mental capacity in the context of bipolar. Methods A co-produced prototype ACD template was piloted in 'Plan, Do, Study Act' (PDSA) cycles. Implementation strategies were co-produced with participants and mapped onto the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) framework. Strategies were evaluated during thematically analysed qualitative interviews. Results We piloted the template with 17 service users during 5 successive PDSA cycles and conducted 75 in depth interviews with stakeholders. Key strategies identified as accessible, appropriate and feasible were: interactive assistance from an independent 'supporter', a structured template and active offers of involvement to service users and informal carers. Conclusions Mental health professionals and organisations must prepare for increased expectations around mental health ADM. We recommend further pilot projects and the establishment of 'ACD workshops'. Resource is essential to fund independent 'supporters', training, network building and embedding ADM in clinical pathways.

Successful Implementation of Peer Support for People with Severe Mental Illness in Germany: a Theory of Change Approach

Peer support is an established intervention in which people with mental illness receive support by trained peer support workers who have already overcome a mental health crisis. The implementation of peer support is complex due to interacting factors and can be achieved through the participatory Theory of Change method. Aim of this study is to develop a cross-site Theory of Change for the sustainable implementation of UPSIDES peer support in Germany. Based on site-specific Theories of Change workshops from Ulm and Hamburg in which 47 participants took part, a cross-site Theory of Change was designed and verified in three follow-up workshops with 12 participants. Participants' professional and experiential backgrounds were diverse, including peer support workers, hospital directors and managers, mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychotherapists, nurses), and researchers. The first pathway of the cross-site Theory of Change focuses on the training of peer support workers, whereas the second pathway emphasizes recognition and integration by mental health institutions and professionals. The third pathway specifies the building of a cross-professional care network to integrate various peer support services. Procedures to approach prospective peer clients are depicted in the fourth pathway. The fifth path addresses the clarification of the role description of peer support workers and the implementation in other institutions through cooperation. Many of the identified implementation steps have been validated in comparable studies. The development of this Theory of Change by bringing together multiple perspectives of key stakeholders is an important basis for the sustainable implementation of UPSIDES peer support. Furthermore, it may serve as a blueprint for the implementation of similar interventions to advance scaling-up of evidence-based user-led and recovery-oriented interventions. The Theory of Change approach is a well-accepted and feasible method, which can be recommended for the implementation of complex interventions such as UPSIDES peer support.

De veranderende rol van provincies bij de ­uitvoering van hun beleid voor maatschappelijke betrokkenheid bij natuur

Promoting societal engagement with nature is an important policy ambition of Dutch nature policy. This article provides an overview of how the provinces together with stakeholders have shaped their policy to increase the societal engagement of citizens with nature in recent years. The goals and governance modes embedded in the policy programs were analyzed, and results and experiences of the various involved parties with the policy were reviewed. Based on a national review and in dept study of three cases, this article describes different regional approaches for increasing societal engagement. In addition it discusses the recent developments within this policy field.The analysis shows that provinces pursue different goals with societal engagement. It is both a policy goal in itself – provinces would like to increase the number of citizens involved – as well as a means of achieving a broader range of other goals (welfare, health, quality of life, shared responsibility, funding, support for nature policy). Provinces use different governance modes; they act as responsive and increasingly networking government. They use various policy instruments; financial support for initiatives and intermediaries, network building and communication. Furthermore, the analysis shows that past experiences have shaped provinces’ governance mode and that these are adapted accordingly. A shift is noted from leaving the initiative with communities to more direct facilitation by the government. Also governing based on performance, linked to new public management, is on the rise, as there is increasing demand for accountability of provincial expenditure.

Regulation of cellular communication network factor 1 by Ras homolog family member A in bovine steroidogenic luteal cells.

Development of the corpus luteum (CL) requires the growth of a new capillary network from preexisting vasculature, a process known as angiogenesis. Successful building of this capillary network occurs through a sequence of cellular events-differentiation, proliferation, migration, and adhesion-which are regulated by a suite of angiogenic proteins that includes cellular communication network factor 1 (CCN1). We previously reported that the expression of CCN1 was highest in luteal tissue obtained from the early-cycle, 4-d-old bovine CL (i.e., corpus hemorrhagicum) compared to the mid- and late-cycle CL. In the present study, we treated steroidogenic bovine luteal cells from early-cycle CL with luteinizing hormone (LH), but it had no effect on CCN1 expression. Direct stimulation of the canonical LH pathway with forskolin and dibutyryl-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), however, inhibited CCN1 mRNA expression. In endothelial cells, stimulation of Ras homolog family member A (RhoA) induces CCN1 expression, whereas RhoA inactivation inhibits it. Yet, it is unknown if regulation of CCN1 in steroidogenic luteal cells works likewise. We hypothesized that a similar mechanism of CCN1 regulation exists in bovine luteal cells and that thrombin, a known RhoA activator, may be a physiologic trigger for this mechanism in the early-cycle CL. To test this hypothesis, ovaries were collected from lactating dairy cows on days 3 or 4 of the estrous cycle, and corpora lutea were dissected and dissociated. Steroidogenic luteal cells were suspended in defined Ham's F12 medium, supplemented with insulin/transferrin/selenium and gentamicin, and seeded into 6-well plates. After 24 h, spent medium was replaced with fresh Ham's F12, and the cells were cultured for 24 to 48 h. Cells were treated for 2 h with defined medium, 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), thrombin (1, 5, 10 U/mL), or Rho Activator II (0.25, 1, 2 μg/mL). Cells were then lysed for RNA extraction, followed by cDNA generation, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Thrombin (1, 5, 10 U/mL; n = 3) and Rho Activator II (0.25, 1, 2 μg/mL; n = 6) increased (P < 0.05) CCN1 mRNA expression. In summary, CCN1 in bovine steroidogenic luteal cells was induced by thrombin and appeared to be regulated in a Rho-dependent manner. Future work will elucidate the signaling partners downstream of Rho which leads to CCN1 gene expression.

Resilience Oriented Planning of Urban Multi-Energy Systems With Generalized Energy Storage Sources

In the last decade, a number of severe urban power outages have been caused by extreme natural disasters, e.g., hurricanes, snowstorms and earthquakes, which highlights the need for rethinking current planning principles of urban energy systems and expanding the classical reliability-oriented view. In addition to being reliable to low-impact and high-probability outages, power system should also have high level of resilience to withstand high-impact and low-probability (HILP) events. Compared with power system, multi-energy systems (MESs) have advantages in improving resilience through energy shifting across multiple energy sectors, a variety of generalized energy storage resources and thermal inertia of heat/cooling loads. This paper proposes a resilience-oriented planning method to determine optimal configuration of distribution level MES, e.g., urban energy supply systems, considering comprehensive impacts from supply, network and demand sides in MES. Impacts of energy shifting at supply side, pipe storage at network side and thermal inertia at demand side are described in the same linear modeling framework using energy hub (EH) model. Generalized energy storage resources including centralized and distributed energy storage devices, pipe network storage and building heat capacity are all modeled into centralized energy storage to facilitate an efficient configuration planning of MES.

Information Technologies in Home Automation According to the Smart Home Concept

The purpose of the study is to review and identify problems with automation systems for housing construction according to the concept of a Smart Home. The research methodology is based on a systems approach, sources analysis, computer network building methods and information technology. Scientific novelty. Information technologies for implementing automation systems according to the Smart Home concept were further developed. Conclusions. The study reviews the area of the Smart Home concept, which is an example of home automation, an important area of the Internet of Things. Based on the analysis of relevant sources in the field of research, a number of problems have been identified in the existing approaches to the creation of Smart Home systems.

The development, paradigm and academic values of enterprise anthropology—the “fourth revolution” of anthropology

As an emerging interdisciplinary field in anthropology, enterprise anthropology (EA) has experienced five historical stages of development since its inception in the 1930s. 2008 marked the first year of internationalized enterprise anthropology, thus prompting the “fourth revolution” of anthropology. Since then, the sub-discipline of enterprise anthropology has entered its fifth stage of development. This stage of enterprise anthropology has witnessed new research subjects, concepts, and theories. Breakthroughs have been made in theoretical research and methodological innovation, and a unique paradigm has been established. In terms of discipline and era, the fifth stage is characterized by: innovative transformation and creative development, integration of Chinese and Western channels for anthropology research, building of international academic networks, and the practice of “people-centered” research. As a result, this stage of enterprise anthropology holds profound theoretical and practical significance for interdisciplinary and academic equity, new ideas and methods for studying the transformation of Chinese society, and establishment of an internationalized research paradigm for the Chinese academic community.

“Samhandling”: On the nuances of resilience through case study research in emergency response operations

AbstractStandard emergency‐management procedures offer guidance on how organizations can improve their handling of all types of emergencies. However, such a generalization undermines uncertainties and oversimplifies the complexity of real work practices during an emergency response operation (ERO). The handling of the COVID‐19 pandemic highlights how uncertainty and escalating consequences reinforce the need for resilience in EROs. To illustrate the key elements of our suggested approach and its practical implications, we discuss the issues in light of a case study related to a COVID‐19 outbreak on a floating oil rig in the North Sea. The analysis reveals several instances of creative problem solving, and individual and collective efforts beyond the scope of the standard procedures. It also underlines how the shortcomings of resource allocation and over‐planning might lead to inflexibility, thus harming EROs' efficiency. Our analysis highlights that the key to resilient EROs lies in robust coordination, the ability to improvise, transparency, and trusting communication between the actors involved. Greater focus on network building—proactively maintained through regular training and exercise activities—strengthens resilience in emergency‐management systems. All these traits link to the Norwegian term “samhandling,” a notion which is here proposed to summarize and connect these resilience capacities.

Image Processing: Convert a Sketch into Coloures Image using cGAN

Synthesizing realistic images from human drawn sketches is a challenging problem in computer graphics and vision. Existing approaches either need exact edge maps, or rely on retrieval of existing photographs. In this work, we propose a novGenerative Adversarial Network(GAN) approach that synthesizes plausible images from 50 categories including motorcycles, horses and couches. We demonstrate a data augmentation technique for sketches which is fully automatic, and we show that the augmented data is helpful to our task. We introduce a new network building block suitable for both the generator and discriminator which improves the information flow by injecting the input image at multiple scales. Compared to state-of-the-art image translation methods, our approach generates more realistic images and achieves significantly higher Inception Scores.

Impact of Community-Based Tourism Projects’ Empowerment on the Adoption of Sustainability Practices by Community Tourism Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka

<p class="Default">Community-Based Tourism (CBT) has emerged in many countries as a tool for poverty reduction and sustainability enhancement. Even though sustainability practices are essential for promoting community-level tourism, due to lack of capacity and know-how, poor attitudes, reluctance to change, etc. cause to lower the application of sustainability practices by community tourism entrepreneurs. Therefore, CBT projects were initiated and greater efforts were taken to indoctrinate the sustainability practices among the micro and small scale tourism entrepreneurs (MSSTEs). However, several past researchers argued that those efforts were unable to build fruitful results. This was reported in several community tourism villages, especially in the Sri Lankan context. Therefore, this research endeavors to study the impact of empowerment efforts of CBT projects on the adoption of sustainability practices by the MSSTEs. The structured questionnaire survey was applied for data collection from a sample of 200 MSSTEs in six villages of Sri Lanka who were empowered by two selected CBT projects. Empowerment efforts were the independent variable, and capacity building, financial assistance, education and training, network building, monitoring and evaluation were the five sub-constructs of it. Sustainability practices were the dependent variable and economic, social and cultural, and environmental sustainability were the three sub-constructs of it. Findings revealed that CBT empowerment efforts affect significantly on the adoption of the three facets of sustainability practices by the MSSTEs. Economic sustainability was the highest achieved practice and it implies that CBT project empowerments were able to eliminate poverty in the rural community and strengthen their economic status.

Posterior cingulate cortex reveals an expression profile of resilience in cognitively intact elders.

The posterior cingulate cortex, a key hub of the default mode network, underlies autobiographical memory retrieval and displays hypometabolic changes early in Alzheimer disease. To obtain an unbiased understanding of the molecular pathobiology of the aged posterior cingulate cortex, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) on tissue obtained from 26 participants of the Rush Religious Orders Study (11 males/15 females; aged 76–96 years) with a pre-mortem clinical diagnosis of no cognitive impairment and post-mortem neurofibrillary tangle Braak Stages I/II, III, and IV. Transcriptomic data were gathered using next-generation sequencing of RNA extracted from posterior cingulate cortex generating an average of 60 million paired reads per subject. Normalized expression of RNA-seq data was calculated using a global gene annotation and a microRNA profile. Differential expression (DESeq2, edgeR) using Braak staging as the comparison structure isolated genes for dimensional scaling, associative network building and functional clustering. Curated genes were correlated with the Mini-Mental State Examination and semantic, working and episodic memory, visuospatial ability, and a composite Global Cognitive Score. Regulatory mechanisms were determined by co-expression networks with microRNAs and an overlap of transcription factor binding sites. Analysis revealed 750 genes and 12 microRNAs significantly differentially expressed between Braak Stages I/II and III/IV and an associated six groups of transcription factor binding sites. Inputting significantly different gene/network data into a functional annotation clustering model revealed elevated presynaptic, postsynaptic and ATP-related expression in Braak Stages III and IV compared with Stages I/II, suggesting these pathways are integral for cognitive resilience seen in unimpaired elderly subjects. Principal component analysis and Kruskal–Wallis testing did not associate Braak stage with cognitive function. However, Spearman correlations between genes and cognitive test scores followed by network analysis revealed upregulation of classes of synaptic genes positively associated with performance on the visuospatial perceptual orientation domain. Upregulation of key synaptic genes suggests a role for these transcripts and associated synaptic pathways in cognitive resilience seen in elders despite Alzheimer disease pathology and dementia.

Molecular-Scale Hardware Encryption Using Tunable Self-Assembled Nanoelectronic Networks

Nanomaterials are promising alternatives for creating hardware security primitives that are considered more robust and less susceptible to physical attacks compared to standard CMOS-based approaches. Here, nanoscale electronic circuits composed of tunable ratios of molecules and colloidal nanoparticles formed via self-assembly on silicon wafers are investigated for information and hardware security by utilizing device-level physical variations induced during fabrication. Two-terminal electronic transport measurements show variations in current through different parts of the nanoscale network, which are used to define electronic physically unclonable functions. By comparing different current paths, arrays of binary bits are generated that can be used as encryption keys. Evaluation of the keys using Hamming inter-distance values indicates that performance is improved by varying the ratio of molecules to nanoparticles in the network, which demonstrates self-assembly as a potential path toward implementing molecular-scale hardware security primitives. These nanoelectronic networks thus combine facile fabrication with a large variety of possible network building blocks, enabling their utilization for hardware security with additional degrees of freedom that is difficult to achieve using conventional systems.

Activities of the children stigmatize their mother: perceptions, consequences, and coping in rural Bangladesh

ABSTRACT The study attempts to explore the perceptions, consequences, and coping strategy of mothers subjected to social stigma due to their children’s activities in rural Bangladesh. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out among 218 mothers to investigate social stigma targeted at the mothers stemming from children’s negative traits, behaviors, and activities. It has been learnt from the study that the community people relate children’s behavior with their parents especially blame their mothers and affair case of the children alone represented 69.49% of the respondents. Almost all the stigmatized and non-stigmatized respondents (91.94% of the stigmatized and 100% of the non-stigmatized) perceived that it is very justified that mothers are naturally stigmatized due to children’s negative activities. Stigma often harms network building and social capital as empirical data (53.22%) also revealed that the possibility of building new relationships as exemplified by marriage especially of the daughters were reduced and found difficult. Coping strategies involved a compromise with the rural power structure materialized through fiscal loss of the stigmatized and forced children as expected to the society.

Influencing the coupling between network building blocks in CdSe/CdS dot/rod aerogels by partial cation exchange.

The assembly of CdSe/CdS dot/rod nanocrystals (NCs) with variable length of ZnS tips into aerogel networks is presented. To this end, a partial region selective cation exchange procedure is performed replacing Cd by Zn starting at the NC tip. The produced aerogel networks are investigated structurally and optically. The networks of tip-to-tip connected NCs have an intricate band structure with holes confined to the CdSe cores while electrons are delocalized within the CdS also within connected building blocks. However, the ZnS tips act as a barrier of variable length and strength between the NC building blocks partly confining the electrons. This results in NC based aerogel networks with tunable strength of coupling between building blocks.

“Ok—I Need Help from Somewhere”: ‘The Educational Value of Multiplex Student Relationships in a Commuter College’

The present mixed-methods study provides insight into how students in higher education describe and form multiplex relationships in a cohort of students attending a commuter college, thereby improving our understanding of the complex relationships within student groups and their relation to learning. The main aim was to understand the student experience of networking with other students, particularly how commuter students perceive their academic multiplex relationships. Relational data were collected in a cohort of students (n = 109), complemented by 15 semi-structured interviews. One main finding was that students perceived that their largely homophilous multiplex relationships were central to academic achievement, but if students also had limited friendship relations these multiplex relationships could limit students’ academic experience. Another finding was how orientation week and group work done during the first semester mainly supported the formation of multiplex networks but were also perceived as barriers by some students. Likewise, commuting both scaffolded network building and became a barrier, especially for students with an immigrant background. One important implication for curriculum development is that faculty cannot leave relationship building to the students alone. A strategic model is discussed that supports emerging multiplex relationships, which can lead to gains in learning, retention, and integration.

Social Media and Professional Conduct (SMART): Best Practice Guidelines from the American Society of Pain and Neuroscience (ASPN).

Social media has revolutionized internet communication and become ubiquitous in modern life. Though it originated as a medium for friendship, social media has evolved into an ideal venue for professional networking, scientific exchange, and brand building. As such, it is a powerful tool with which interventional pain physicians should become familiar. However, given the permanence and visibility of online posts, it is prudent for interventional pain physicians to utilize social media in a manner that is consistent with the ethical and professionalism standards to which they are held by their patients, employers, peers, and state medical boards. While there are extensive publications of professional codes of conduct by medical societies, there is a paucity of literature regarding social media best practices guidelines. Further, to date there have been no social media best practices recommendations specific to interventional pain medicine physicians. While not exhaustive, the aim of this document is to provide recommendations to pain physicians on how to maintain an effective professional and ethical online presence. Specifically, we provide guidance on online persona and professional image, patient–physician interactions online, patient privacy, industry relations, patient education, and brand building.

Enhanced Super-Resolution Using GAN

Abstract: Super-resolution reconstruction is an increasingly important area in computer vision. To eliminate the problems that super-resolution reconstruction models based on generative adversarial networks are difficult to train and contain artifacts in reconstruction results. besides the breakthroughs in accuracy and speed of single image super-resolution using faster and deeper convolutional neural networks. However, the hallucinated details are often accompanied with unpleasant artifacts. This paper presented ESRGAN model which was also based on generative adversarial networks. To further enhance the visual quality, we thoroughly study three key components of SRGAN – network architecture, adversarial loss and perceptual loss, and improve each of them to derive an Enhanced SRGAN (ESRGAN). In particular, we introduce the Residual-in-Residual Dense Block (RRDB) without batch normalization as the basic network building unit. Moreover, we borrow the idea from relativistic GAN to let the discriminator predict relative realness instead of the absolute value. Finally, we improve the perceptual loss by using the features before activation, which could provide stronger supervision for brightness consistency and texture recovery. Benefiting from these improvements, the proposed ESRGAN achieves consistently better visual quality with more realistic and natural textures than SRGAN.