Preemptive Action Research Articles

“Pre-emption is victory”: aggravated nuclear instability of the information age

ABSTRACTLeading US military figures have discussed the use of pre-emptive cyberattack to disable or disrupt enemy nuclear missiles. While Russia does not appear to have such a highly developed concept, it now sees US plans to disrupt the command and control of its nuclear weapons as the main threat it faces at the strategic level of warfare. Cyberweapons and strategies have brought us to a situation of aggravated nuclear instability that needs to be more explicitly and openly addressed in the diplomacy of leading powers, both in private and in public. This article draws attention to a convergence between Russian interest in pre-emptive attack and reasonable views of Western strategists and scholars that the character of cyberspace favors offense and may encourage pre-emptive action. Since bilateral arms-control regimes for cyberspace are unlikely given the difficulty of verification and escalating US-Russian tension, states should commit to restraint regarding cyberattacks on nuclear military assets.

The Determinants of Non-Performing Loans in the MINT Economies

This paper investigates the major determinants of non-performing loans in the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) economies. Identifying major determinants of non-performing loans, which are observed to be growing in these countries in recent time, will also guide policy and forecasting future levels that will be useful for pre-emptive policies and actions. It uses static panel data and dynamic panel model analyses. Evidence suggests that in the four economies, capital adequacy ratio, liquidity ratio, total bank credit andreturn on assets are significant bank-specific determinants of non-performing loans. Also, while the return on assets, liquidity ratio and capital adequacy ratioshow a negative and significant relationship with non-performing loans, nominal exchange rate, money supply growth rate, total bank credit and lending rate show positive and very significant relationships with non-performing loans. Finally, corruption, an institutional variable, shows a very strong positive relationship with non-performing loans.

Numerical investigations on delaminated Glare under uni-axial tension

Purpose – Since failure of laminated composites by delaminations is common, the purpose of this paper is to present a numerical procedure to check the stability of delaminations in fiber metal laminate (Glare), with different possible damage configurations, under uni-axial tension. Deformation behavior of the laminate is also examined. Influence of the type and the extent of damage, represented by varying sizes and number of delaminations, on delamination driving force and laminate deformation is found. Design/methodology/approach – Delaminated Glare is modeled by finite element method. Interface cohesive elements are used to model the delaminations. Finite element results provide the deflection/deformation characteristics of the laminate. Driving forces of delaminations are estimated by J integrals that are numerically obtained over cyclic paths near delamination tips. Laminates with different types of delaminations are also fabricated and externally delaminated for measurement of their interlaminar fracture toughness. The delamination is considered to be stable if its driving force is less than corresponding interlaminar fracture toughness of the laminate. Findings – Delaminations are found to be stable in laminates with lower number of delaminations and unstable in laminates with higher number of delaminations. Increase in size of delaminations increases the deformations but reduces the delamination driving force whereas increase in number of delaminations increases both deformations and driving forces. The trends change in case of laminates with symmetrical damage. Shape of delamination is also found to influence the deformations and driving forces. The finite element model is validated. Research limitations/implications – There is scope for validating the numerical results reported in the paper by theoretical models. Practical implications – Checking the stability of delaminations and their effect on deformation behavior of the laminate helps is assessment of safety and remaining life of the laminate. If failure is predicted, preemptive action is taken by using repair patch ups at identified critical locations in order to avoid failures in service conditions. Originality/value – The paper offers the following benefits: use of cohesive zone method that is readily possible in finite element procedures and is relatively simple, fast and reasonably accurate is demonstrated; suitability of using J integrals over paths crossing non-homogeneous and property mismatched material layers is tested; and influence of the type and the extent of damage in the laminate on its deformation behavior and delamination driving forces is found. This type of work has not been reported so far.

The Affordable Care Act's Effects On The Formation, Expansion, And Operation Of Physician-Owned Hospitals.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposed new restrictions on the formation and expansion of physician-owned hospitals. These restrictions provided incentives for the hospitals and their owners to take preemptive actions before the effective dates of ACA provisions and modify their operations thereafter. We studied 106 physician-owned hospitals in Texas to determine how they responded to ACA restrictions. We found that there were significant pre-ACA increases in the formation, physician ownership, and physical capacity of physician-owned hospitals, which suggests that they reacted quickly to the policy changes. After the ACA's provisions took effect, the hospitals improved the use of their assets to generate increased amounts of services, revenue, and profits. We found no evidence that existing physician-owned hospitals stopped accepting Medicare to avoid the ACA restrictions, although some investors adopted a seemingly unsuccessful strategy of not accepting Medicare at physician-owned hospitals formed after implementation of the ACA. We conclude that the ACA restrictions effectively eliminated the formation of new physician-owned hospitals, thus accomplishing what previous legislative efforts had failed to do.

SunCity: Beyond the Green Marking

Sunway City Berhad (also known as SunCity) is a well-known Malaysian company focusing on premium property development and investment. It began operation in 1986, and had since continued to integrate various innovations in its property offerings. In mid-2008, the global economic crisis had affected the overall performance of the Malaysian property development sector. In the midst of the crisis, SunCity realized that it needed to take a preemptive action to face the crisis. At the end of the year, SunCity applied for the Green Mark certification by the Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) for two of its most recently launched projects. Although SunCity had consistently integrated green features in its projects to meet customer’s demands for the last several years, it had yet to obtain a proper evaluation of such efforts. Obtaining the certification was a way of demonstrating SunCity’s commitments toward creating values for its customers. By April 2009, while SunCity had the BCA Green Mark certifications in hand, the company’s top management team was aware that the construction industry was not doing well, and that getting the certification was expensive. As such, proper strategies were urgently needed to help avoid further decline in the company’s profitability. This case study aimed to analyze SunCity’s green initiatives and to stimulate discussion on the appropriate ‘green’ strategies that the company can implement in the future.

Counter-Terrorism Legislation: Human Rights vs. Peace and Security. Malaysia as a Case Study

One decade has been spent by nation states on the war against terrorism. However, terrorist activities are still remained, amount of civilian casualties have increased and human rights violated frequently under the pretext of security. The international human rights frame work has been sacrificed by waging the war on terrorism; the war which recognize by its open ended and unknown battlefield. The balance between liberty and security has challenged, when the war is waged. This war does not observe human rights and humanitarian law rules, which obtained by great efforts during decades. On one hand, this article will investigate on violations of international human rights law by counter-terrorism measures as pre-emptive actions against civil liberties. On the other hand, it will illuminate the right of peace and security as basic need of society and essential responsibility of governments. How to make balance between security and human rights? How to increase safety of societies and human rights simultaneously? What are the boundaries of counter-terrorism measures to protect human rights law? These are the questions, which answers will be briefly assessed. Finally in this article the Malaysian perspective and its response to war on terrorism will also be assessed as a case study.

Buddhist socio-cultural influences on entrepreneurial actions and performance: case of rural Thailand

This study examines entrepreneurs in the Buddhist socio-cultural setting of rural villages of Thailand. Avoiding conflict is a cultural norm and business challenge for Buddhists, who have social and ethical obligations to present oneself as avoiding 'clashes' at any cost, particularly in a rural environment that is fraught with uncertainty and the 'triple jeopardy' effect. A total of 178 rural small business respondents from 31 Buddhist provinces with different economic development were obtained through interview-based field research using a survey questionnaire administered in-person on-site. Although the Buddhist context fosters peace loving entrepreneurs, it was found that non-financial success matters more, 'reactive' actions were taken in response to competition instead of aggressive preemptive actions, and there was positive correlation between proactiveness, risk-taking and innovativeness. This suggests the need to consider alternative models of socio-economic development that offer a more holistic and balanced approach for rural Buddhist entrepreneurs.

MODELING OF INFORMATION STRESS

A person who communicates in the environment (Internet) intensively, living in online environments could be a special type of stress, stress or, as often, the stress. It occurs in situations usually not predictable by the individual, for example, due to loss of communication with the important communication, a virus attack with the destruction of valuable or loss of codes, passwords, access account and other extreme situations. Such stress could lead to depression, such cases are practically known. Medicine has been diagnosed disease, information psychosis, Internet depression. It is important to simulate this situation, to predict response pre-emptive action. Task is a very important and very complex. In work methods of mathematical modeling studied this situation using simple hypotheses, sufficient in the early stage of study.

How cities prepare for climate change: Comparing Hamburg and Rotterdam

This paper compares the different ways in which the cities of Hamburg and Rotterdam are taking preemptive action to adapt to climate change. Literature, interviews, secondary data, official statistics, project reports and policy briefs were used to identify institutional arrangements used by the city governments to encourage innovations in climate adaptation strategies and involve the private sector in climate change policy implementation. We focus on cases that create positive opportunities; exploring how innovations are facilitated within the theoretical frameworks of the Porter hypothesis and eco-innovation. We examine two possible pathways of climate change governance, firstly strict regulation and formal enforcement, and secondly institutional eco-innovation and voluntary measures. We found that different emphasis is placed on the preferred pathway in each of the case studies. Hamburg focuses on formal enforcements while the Rotterdam city government encourages institutional eco-innovation by acting as a platform and also providing incentives. Our findings suggest that a well-designed institutional framework can enhance innovation and increase environmental and business performance. The framework could vary in instruments and patterns, using both formal constraints and incentives to increase voluntary actions to shape policy. The formal rules could be stringent or incentivising to shape the climate change measures. The research aims to contribute to both practice and science by providing examples that might motivate and inspire other cities to design appropriate institutions for climate change policy implementation.

On the synergy between disclosure and investment beauty contests

Many investments are noted for their "beauty contest" features in that decision makers desire conformity with others׳ choices due to inherent complementarities. This paper examines the incentives of firms to take preemptive action and publicly disclose their investments in such beauty contests. In this case, it is the beauty contest desire for coordination that incentivizes a firm to disclose because doing so allows it to convey information that establishes norms and thereby influence subsequent actions of others. Disclosure recipients too benefit from this arrangement because they access additional information on which to base their decisions.

재난전조감지를 위한 위성센서 기술요구조건 분석

Since concentration of greenhouse gas increases continuously from human's fossil fuel use, urbanization, and cultivation, it is trend that climate change is appearing. In Addition, in 20th century, occurrence of disaster is accidental and huge, and damage level also increases gradually. Therefore, in order to preserve the territory and to protect people's life and property against new type disasters, disaster detection satellite (payloads) development is required urgently. In this paper, we conduct a research and development for the prompt preemptive action when occurred a disaster, in particularly, about the disaster observation optimized at Korea's geographical features for the irregular future disasters. For the payload design which is specialized detect disasters, we create a tech tree of satellite imagery applications based 10 disaster types, and analyze the satellite sensor technologies referred to Landsat-8, Worldview-3 and ALOS-2.

Accident-precipitating factors for crashes in turbine-powered general aviation aircraft

General aviation (14CFR Part 91) accounts for 83% of civil aviation fatalities. While much research has focused on accident causes/pilot demographics in this aviation sector, studies to identify factors leading up to the crash (accident-precipitating factors) are few. Such information could inform on pre-emptive remedial action. With this in mind and considering the paucity of research on turbine-powered aircraft accidents the study objectives were to identify accident-precipitating factors and determine if the accident rate has changed over time for such aircraft operating under 14CFR Part 91.The NTSB Access database was queried for accidents in airplanes (<12,501lb) powered by 1–2 turbine engines and occurring between 1989 and 2013. We developed and utilized an accident-precipitating factor taxonomy. Statistical analyses employed logistic regression, contingency tables and a generalized linear model with Poisson distribution.The “Checklist/Flight Manual Not Followed” was the most frequent accident-precipitating factor category and carried an excess risk (OR 2.34) for an accident with a fatal and/or serious occupant injury. This elevated risk reflected an over-representation of accidents with fatal and/or serious injury outcomes (p<0.001) in the “non-adherence to V Speeds” sub-category. For accidents grouped in the “Inadequate Pre-Flight Planning/Inspection/Procedure” the “inadequate weather planning” sub-category accounted (p=0.036) for the elevated risk (OR 2.22) of an accident involving fatal and/or serious injuries. The “Violation FARs/AIM Deviation” category was also associated with a greater risk for fatal and/or serious injury (OR 2.59) with “Descent below the MDA/failure to execute the missed approach” representing the largest sub-category. Accidents in multi-engine aircraft are more frequent than their single engine counterparts and the decline (50%) in the turbine aircraft accident rate over the study period was likely due, in part, to a 6-fold increased representation of single engine airplanes.In conclusion, our study is the first to identify novel precursive factors for accidents involving turbine aircraft operating under 14CFR Part 91. This research highlights areas that should receive further emphasis in training/recurrency in a pre-emptive attempt to nullify candidate accident-precipitating factor(s).

Ebola, fragile health systems and tuberculosis care: a call for pre-emptive action and operational research.

The Ebola outbreak that started in late 2013 is by far the largest and most sustained in history. It occurred in a part of the world where pre-existing health systems were already fragile, and these deteriorated further during the epidemic due to a large number of health worker deaths; temporary or permanent closure of health facilities; non-payment of health workers; intrinsic fear of contracting or being stigmatised by Ebola among the population, which negatively influenced health-seeking behaviour; enforced quarantine of Ebola-affected communities, restricting the access of vulnerable individuals to health facilities; and late response by the international community. There are also reports of drug and consumable stockouts due to deficiencies in the procurement and supply chain as a result of overriding Ebola-related priorities. Providing tuberculosis (TB) care and achieving favourable treatment outcomes require a fully functioning health system, accurate patient tracking and high patient adherence to treatment. Furthermore, as Ebola is easily transmitted through body fluids, the use of needles-essential for TB diagnosis and treatment-needs to be avoided during an outbreak. We highlight ways in which a sustained Ebola outbreak could jeopardise TB activities and suggest pre-emptive preventive measures while awaiting operational research evidence.

Seasonal ARMA-based SPC charts for anomaly detection: Application to emergency department systems

Monitoring complex production systems is primordial to ensure management, reliability and safety as well as maintaining the desired product quality. Early detection of emergent abnormal behaviour in monitored systems allows pre-emptive action to prevent more serious consequences, to improve system operations and to reduce manufacturing and/or service costs. This study reports the design of a new methodology for the detection of abnormal situations based on the integration of time-series analysis models and statistical process control (SPC) tools for the joint development of a monitoring system to help supervising of the behaviour of emergency department services (EDs). The monitoring system developed is able to provide early alerts in the event of abnormal situations. The seasonal autoregressive moving average (SARMA)-based exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) anomaly detection scheme proposed was successfully applied to the practical data collected from the database of the paediatric emergency department (PED) at Lille regional hospital centre, France. The method developed utilizes SARMA as a modelling framework and EWMA for anomaly detection. The EWMA control chart is applied to the uncorrelated residuals obtained from the SARMA model. The detection results of the EWMA chart are compared with two other commonly applied residual-based tests: a Shewhart individuals chart and a Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) control chart.

Where do we go from here?

In June 2015, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) proposed a lighter touch quality assessment regime that would place greater reliance on institutions' own governance arrangements. In July 2015 the Minister for Higher Education announced a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) parts of which appear inconsistent with HEFCE's proposals. In August the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) responded to HEFCE's proposals envisaging some developments to its present quality assessment arrangements. This article analyses the key issues and principles that will supposedly govern the design of a new quality assessment regime from 2017. It proposes points of reference against which to evaluate the proposals for that new regime; these are whether the approach to review that is adopted: a) differentiates between institutions on the basis of their capacities to manage their responsibilities; b) shows the regulator's willingness to trust institutions to discharge their responsibilities (with verification) and willingness by institutions to accept their responsibilities; c) adopts an approach to risk and its management that is forward-looking and enables pre-emptive actions to forestall negative outcomes; and d) makes greater use of metrics that are interpreted by experts qualified to make judgements on academic matters.

Identification of Unavoidable Branch Limit Violations Due to Wind Forecast Errors

One role of grid operators is to identify potential problems before they occur and, if necessary, take preemptive actions. As wind generation becomes increasingly widespread, there is the potential for credible, simultaneous fluctuations of output at different locations to result in limit violations. Existing analysis methods that consider forecast errors either inadequately model the control responses available to system operators (e.g., using participation factors) or ignore network constraints, which limits their utility in identifying situations that would require operator action. An alternative method of handling forecast errors, utilizing bilevel programming, is proposed here to identify situations that may result in branch overloads. What distinguishes this method from prior approaches is that it only identifies overloads that can occur despite optimal operator reaction to forecast errors--i.e., when the overload is unavoidable, given current control capabilities. Studies conducted on 37- and 118-bus test systems demonstrate both the utility and feasibility of using this method for online operations.

The Square of Polish Innocence: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and its symbolic topography

The text refers to the space around the Nathan Rapoport’s Monument to the Fighters and Martyrs of the Ghetto and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN in Warsaw (Poland). The site of death – at the heart of the former Warsaw Ghetto – has now become a site overloaded with other symbolic messages. Two main symbolic centers (the 1948 Monument and the 2013 Museum) are today encircled by ten other, additional memorials. The message emerging from the content as well as the proportion of commemorations is that Polish solidarity with the Jews was a fact and it stood the test of terror and death brought by the Germans. Although it does not undermine the veracity of the few and isolated exceptions, such a version of events is drastically different from the actual facts. Both symbolic centers are perceived as emblems of Jewish minority narrative. Additional artefacts are a message formulated by the Polish majority. They constitute a kind of symbolic encirclement, block. Emphasizing the dominant majority’s version of the events in this place is in fact a symbolic pre-emptive action. It is meant to silence the unwanted narrative or suppress even the mere possibility that it might emerge. What turns out to be at stake in the dominant Polish narrative about the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish relations is the image of Poland and the Poles. This shows not only the topographic and symbolic situation but also the socio-cultural context of the functioning of the new Museum.

스포츠 제품 선택속성의 상대적 중요도와 시장 세분화를 통한 스포츠 산업 정책 방향 제안

The purpose of this study is to find key factors in choosing sporting goods and segment sports market to develop Korea sports industry. Data used to analyze for this study were collected from a total of 389 survey participants in 2014 SPOEX. A conjoint analysis yielded relative importance of each factor and then 4 segmented consumer groups were acquired through cluster analysis using individual part-worth estimate of conjoint analysis result. Among the most important factors in choosing sporting goods were ‘design’ and also ‘self-image’. 4 segmented groups by clustering were ‘design concentrate’, ‘external self-image’, ‘internal self-image’, and ‘seek utility’. From comprehensive review precede literature with this result, important factors in choosing are changing pattern consistently. Thus, design and self-esteem factors are useful in short-term marketing strategy. But it is more useful to predict future trends and launch a pre-emptive action by enterprise and government, in order to successes business of entrepreneur and to develop policy of Korean government..

Effects of climate change on the future distributions of the top five freshwater invasive plants in South Africa

A recent study shows that most aquatic alien plants in temperate cold climate are of tropical and subtropical origins and only those that can withstand cold climates become invasive. This suggests that a changing climate that becomes warmer may result in currently non-invasive alien plants becoming invasive in the future. To facilitate pre-emptive actions when controlling invasive aquatic plants in South Africa under climate change, we reconstructed predictive models for the five most damaging aquatic alien plants of freshwater systems in the country. We found evidence of contrasting shifts in species distribution ranges: the ranges of Myriophyllum aquaticum and Pistia stratiotes will contract, while Azolla filiculoides, Eichhornia crassipes, and Salvinia molesta will increase their future ranges with most suitable habitats found in the Western Cape province and along coastal areas. In addition, the predicted range contraction and expansion would result in some dams currently vulnerable to invasion becoming resilient while others that are currently resilient may become vulnerable due to climate change. These results can be used to develop future monitoring programs for aquatic ecosystems, prioritize control efforts, and raise public awareness on risks posed by these aquatic invasive plants, especially under future climate scenarios.

Action-projection in Japanese conversation: topic particles wa, mo, and tte for triggering categorization activities.

Conversation analytic work has revealed how anticipatory completions and preemptive actions can offer invaluable glimpses into the cognitive, contextual, grammatical, and temporal bases of projectability in turn-taking, by virtue of their potential not only as a display of participants' online prediction of roughly what it might take to complete a turn-in-progress but also to plan the next move. While the predicate-final word order and the incremental transformability of turns in Japanese generally lead to delayed projectability of turn-endings, this may be partially offset by the capacity of certain postpositional particles to trigger and propel prospective action trajectories. This article engages in a case study of the topic particle wa (and related particles mo and tte), by demonstrating how its grammatical affordances, the categorization activities, and cognitive processing it can set in motion, coupled with the immediate contextual, and temporal-productional features may coalesce to a point of critical mass, thereby enhancing the projectability of the not-yet-produced trajectory of the current turn. The discussion attempts to contribute to recent debates on ways language-specific lexicogrammatical resources are deeply interlinked with the types of opportunities that are provided for social action.