Intelligent Provisioning Research Articles

Clinical evaluation of real-time artificial intelligence provision of expert representation in indocyanine green fluorescence angiography during colorectal resections

Clinical evaluation of real-time artificial intelligence provision of expert representation in indocyanine green fluorescence angiography during colorectal resections

Frustration–Aggression Nexus in Framing the Expanding Banditry Economy in Northwest Nigeria: Evidence From Communal-Level Perception in Zamfara State, 2011–2024

Recent studies on armed banditry in Zamfara have commented on climate change, weak security infrastructure, and setbacks in socio-economic developments. The communal-level issues in the threat such as farmland allocation, vigilantism, and local intelligence provision have largely remained understudied. This study exploits the gap to explain armed banditry. A mixed method of data collection and qualitative descriptive method of data analysis were adopted. Using frustration–aggression analysis as explanatory tool, the paper concludes that wholesale farmland transaction, rudimentary communal vigilantism, and bandits’ concealed alliance formation with some traditional leaders for intelligence and benefits sharing are key factors that aided banditry. Tackling these three basic communal-level banditry nuances requires absolute political will to re-assess and implement the extant policies on grazing reserves and pastoralist mobility.

Postmistresses and the state, 1660–1715

ABSTRACT Women’s place in the post-Restoration Post Office has been overlooked in the existing literature on the mail, 1660–1715. Historians and historical geographers have explored the bureaucratic and administrative history of the Post; the expansion of postal routes; and the importance of change in the postal network to the delivery of letters. There has, however, been no social history of the post. This article reveals the positions occupied by women within the early modern post but focuses principally on postmistresses in the period 1660–1715. It explains why women, particularly widows, were considered suitable for the office. The article defines the role of postmaster and explains the behaviour required of officeholders, combining hospitality, logistics, administration, and the provision of intelligence. The functions and legitimation of postmasters developed considerably from the mid-seventeenth century alongside similar offices within the early modern state. As important cogs in an increasingly complex machine of communication and administration, postmistresses were part of the process of state formation, and their work legitimised the state in the provinces. This article argues for the first time that postmistresses were a significant, and yet unnoticed, presence in the early modern British state at a key stage of its development.

An exploratory study into cell approaches for intelligence collection from detainees within an English Police Custody Suite

Abstract The value of intelligence gathered from cell approaches in police custody suites remains largely unexplored, presenting a crucial area for research. This study explores the collection of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) and the generation of Source (Covert Human Intelligence Source, CHIS) referrals during cell approaches. Data was collected from 102 cell approaches by which 54 were undertaken by dedicated intelligence officers and 48 by detectives in a police custody suite in England over a 3-month period. Results revealed that detectives, when tasked, were significantly more successful than dedicated intelligence officers in securing intelligence during cell approaches and to make source (CHIS) referrals. A detainee’s willingness to engage was associated with intelligence provision, with revenge and lifestyle as key motivating factors. Detainees were significantly more likely to provide intelligence post-charge rather than pre-charge, though the time of day and detainee age showed no significant correlations with intelligence gathering. This study discussed the importance of optimizing intelligence collection and source referrals during cell approaches.

The Establishment of the Directorate Military Intelligence upon South Africa’s Exit from the Commonwealth 1961–1971: In Pursuit of Recognition

After South Africa had left the Commonwealth in 1961, the South African Defence Force had to develop its own intelligence capacity, as the British intelligence services ceased intelligence provision to South Africa. The Defence Force had limited experience in the field of intelligence as far as personnel, training and structures were concerned. It had no mandate, an insubordinate position in the higher military hierarchy, and no national legislation or departmental prescripts existed to direct its functions. Certain of its functions continuously migrated to other structures in the Defence Force, which hampered its development. Towards the end of the decade, the organisation was temporarily disbanded, and its functions taken over by a newly created Bureau of State Security. Despite these limitations, the Directorate Military Intelligence evolved into a comprehensive autonomous intelligence organisation over a period of ten years, directed by national legislation, and legitimised as one of the three principal intelligence organisations in South Africa. It performed the main intelligence functions as is globally accepted from the role of an intelligence organisation, viz. collection, analyses, counter-intelligence, and covert action. This article will provide a narrative, based mainly on primary archival sources, of the evolution of Directorate Military Intelligence between 1961 and 1971 despite the developmental challenges it faced. Keywords: Intelligence, Covert Collection, Foreign Intelligence Services, Analysis, BOSS, Psychological Operations, National Legislation

Toward High-Powered Connected Autonomous Vehicles: A Cooperative Solution via Transient Edge Intelligence Provision

High-powered connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) with excellent situational awareness are expected to achieve fully autonomous driving. With the increase of complex CAV applications, it is necessary to introduce an effective cooperation mechanism among differentiated edge nodes to provide a complete set of closed-loop control for sophisticated computing tasks. However, when leveraging edge intelligence (EI) for CAVs, neural networks are vulnerable to transient invalidation of edge nodes or transmission links, which may result in serious decision faults. In this article, we first summarize and analyze three situations that trigger transient changes in edge resources, i.e., the invalid node, the departure node, and the bottleneck node. To tackle these problems, we propose a novel framework of robust intelligent edge computing orchestrator (RIECO) for CAV networks, which can maintain effectiveness in topology identification and closed-loop control. Importantly, to quickly recover from transient phenomena, the emergency plane proactively migrates defunct models to new nodes. To prove the feasibility of the proposed RIECO framework, we take a series of simulation experiences for different transient scenarios. Finally, some open challenges and future research directions are discussed.

The Impact of Aging on the Economy and Countermeasures in China and Japan

China is facing significant economic impacts as its population continues to age. Japan, a country with a similar aging pattern and cultural background, has developed a mature coping system that can serve as a guide for China's aging direction. This paper aims to explore the impact of aging on the economy and potential policy actions for China. Specifically, the paper analyzes the impact of aging on labor, consumption, and investment. It could be founded that, in terms of the labor force, aging will reduce labor supply, while the proportion of the workforce in middle and old age will increase, slowing down economic growth. In terms of consumption, aging will promote consumption through pension expenditure in the short term, but will slow down consumption expenditure in the long term. From an investment perspective, ageing will reduce investment by society as a whole, except for some pension-related industries. This paper responds to this phenomenon by comparing relevant policies between China and Japan, and advances three countermeasures to mitigate the negative impact of aging: policy improvement, learning of advanced models, and intelligent provision for the elderly.

Portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method for the in-field screening of organic pollutants in soil and water at pollution incidents

Environmental pollution incidents generate an emergency response from regulatory agencies to ensure that the impact on the environment is minimised. Knowing what pollutants are present provides important intelligence to assist in determining how to respond to the incident. However, responders are limited in their in-field capabilities to identify the pollutants present. This research has developed an in-field, qualitative analytical approach to detect and identify organic pollutants that are commonly detected by regulatory environmental laboratories. A rapid, in-field extraction method was used for water and soil matrices. A coiled microextraction (CME) device was utilised for the introduction of the extracted samples into a portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) for analysis. The total combined extraction and analysis time was approximately 6.5 min per sample. Results demonstrated that the in-field extraction and analysis methods can screen for fifty-nine target organic contaminants, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons, monoaromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, phthalates, organophosphorus pesticides, and organochlorine pesticides. The method was also capable of tentatively identifying unknown compounds using library searches, significantly expanding the scope of the methods for the provision of intelligence at pollution incidents of an unknown nature, although a laboratory-based method was able to provide more information due to the higher sensitivity achievable. The methods were evaluated using authentic casework samples and were found to be fit-for-purpose for providing rapid in-field intelligence at pollution incidents. The fact that the in-field methods target the same compounds as the laboratory-based methods provides the added benefit that the in-field results can assist in sample triaging upon submission to the laboratory for quantitation and confirmatory analysis.

The Charting of Arousa Bay: A Case Study in British Naval Pathfinding in the Peninsular War (1807–1814)

ABSTRACT Military reconnaissance and mapping in the Peninsular War have been well studied; less attention has been given to the analogous provision of navigational intelligence for the Royal Navy. This depended on exploitation of such data as was held in the Hydrographical Office in London, supplemented with information from pathfinders on the front line. The present case study examines survey and charting of the rias of the Galician coast, which were of strategic importance for support to Spanish guerillas and to the Duke of Wellington’s army as it advanced through northern Spain.

A first step towards automatic identification and provision of user-specific knowledge: A verification of the feasibility of automatic text classification using the example of standards

The product development process faces major challenges. One major challenge is the time-efficient retrieval of information from engineering documents. In times of machine learning - as an enabler as well as a driver of digitization - new possibilities are opening up to meet the need for intelligent provision of knowledge and to make the flood of information in the product development process more manageable. To achieve the superordinate – future – goal of automatic and user-specific identification and provision of knowledge, a step-by-step approach is required. Thus, existing approaches dealing with the solution of classification problems by ontology-based methods are evaluated, transferred to the domain of standards, and extended. As an initial step, the technical feasibility of automatic text classification for the assignment of business departments to corresponding contents of documents will be examined within the scope of this research work, so that users are provided with the possibility of support when searching for information. Based on this, future research activities will primarily deal with the development of a role model so that, with the help of defined criteria, an unambiguous assignment can be made between content from different engineering documents and a "person of interest".

Guest Editorial Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for Intelligent and Sustainable Traffic and Vehicle Management (VANETs)

Intelligence and sustainability are two essential drivers for the development of current and future Intelligent Transportation Systems. On one hand, the complexity of vehicular ecosystems and the inherently risk-prone circumstances under which pedestrian and vehicles coexist call for the endowment of intelligent functionalities in almost all systems and processes participating in such ecosystems. On the other hand, risk may be the most important objective to be guaranteed by the provision of intelligence in ITS, but it is not certainly the only one: when safety is assured, sustainability comes into play, seeking to convey intelligence to the distinct parts composing the ITS landscape with efficiency, minimum carbon footprint, wastage of resources or any other factor affected by the technological empowerment itself.

Farmers' information needs, access and its impact: Evidence from different cotton producing regions in the Maharashtra state of India

CONTEXTAccess to information is crucial in decision making for viable and sustainable farm business. Thus, the farmers need different types of information from various sources to refine existing practices and adopt new technologies for yield and income advantages. Knowledge about farmers' information needs, access and its impact in different production contexts help in improving the effectiveness of extension and advisory services in the country. OBJECTIVEThis paper examines the farmers' information needs, access to information from different sources and its impact on cotton output and value of output in two different regions having predominantly rainfed and irrigated production contexts. METHODSHousehold level survey data of 644 cotton farmers were collected using multistage sampling from two districts representing distinct production contexts in the Maharashtra state of India. Factors determining the access to information from particular sources were obtained using the Probit model. The impact of access to information was estimated using Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA). RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSThe information needs of the farmers from the two regions were slightly different. In the Jalgaon district with predominantly irrigated cotton production, farmers receiving information from at least one formal source had a significant positive impact on cotton output and the value of output per unit area. While considering each formal information source separately, heterogeneity in impact was observed. Access to information from public sources and mass media had a significant positive impact on cotton output. Mass media sources played a significant role in increasing the value of output per unit area. Despite government and other agencies' efforts and better access to information in predominantly rainfed areas (Yavatmal district), information received by farmers could not produce the desired impact. It necessitates appropriate tailoring of information, specific for these regions; as general information failed to produce much impact. SIGNIFICANCEThis is a holistic study about information dynamics in agriculture, covering information need to its impact in two different cotton producing regions. The study reflects the heterogeneous impacts of access to agricultural information considering different sources. It suggests the importance of region specific customization of agricultural information and emphasizes more role of public sources in provision of market intelligence. Study advocates efforts to effectively channelize agro-advisories through Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Information Communications Technology (ICT) sources.

Die noodsaak van bevoegde onderwysers in elke Suid-Afrikaanse skoolklaskamer

Goeie onderwys kan beskou word as die belangrikste funksie van die staat. Kinders kan nie sukses in die lewe behaal sonder onderwys nie en die basiese instellings van 'n staat kan ineenstort sonder goeie onderwys (vgl. Thro 2005; Nkomo 2021). 'n Verslag van die Wêreld Ekonomiese Forum (2013) het bevind dat Suid-Afrika se onderwysstelsel die derde swakste van al die geëvalueerde lande gevaar het. Die jongste ewekniestudies oor aspekte van die onderwys bevestig almal dat Suid-Afrika groot uitdagings in die gesig staar, hoewel daar tog geringe vordering te bespeur is (Department of Basic Education 2017). Die beskikbaarheid van bevoegde leerkragte word as as een van die grootste uitdagings van die Suid-Afrikaanse onderwyssstelsel gesien. Die pedagogiese en vakinhoudelike kennis van die meeste onderwysers is swak en is die hoofrede vir swak leerderprestasie. Verskeie redes kan vir hierdie onbevoegdheid aangevoer word. Meta-analiste soos Hanushek en Hattie het bevind dat iemand wat oplossings vir onderwysprobleme soek in die eerste plek na die gehalte van onderwysers moet kyk. In hierdie artikel ondersoek ek die implikasies van hulle sienings en in besonder hulle bevindings dat mens "prosaiëse" ekonomiese waardes aan onderwysers se bydraes kan heg. Nuwe uitdagings wat aan onderwysers gestel word deur die Covid-19-virus nou, en ook wanneer die onderwysstelsel na die pandemie herstel ("reset"), sal in berekening gebring moet word. Die koronavirus en die afloop daarvan sal waarskynlik saam met die huidige probleme met die gehalte van onderwys die aanstelling van bevoegde onderwysers ononderhandelbaar maak.

Pembinaan Dan Penguatan Karakter Generasi Muda Melalui Sinergi Building Dan Entrepreneurship Programme Desa Glagah Lamongan.

As a young generation, they must have the provision of creativity, innovation, intelligence and skills that can benefit the environment around them. As a young generation with character, they must be able to have a strong mentality in dealing with various problems that occur in society. Character alone is not enough for the younger generation, but must be able to think creatively and innovatively through entrepreneurship programs. Because at this time the field in the world of work has begun to fill up, the younger generation does not have to look for work but they should be the ones who create jobs. So coaching the younger generation for entrepreneurship programs is also necessary and important to be given to the younger generation. The material presented by the implementing team of this Community Service program will initiate partners to become entrepreneurs with character, so there are several scientific fields that will be given, namely entrepreneurship, managerial science (POAC), production processes to sales processes, leadership, organizational science , craft science, arts, synergy building and cultivation science to be able to provide input or ideas to partners regarding what business fields they can do later.

Automation of rule-based logistics planning processes using intelligent provision tools

Process automation offers opportunities to increase effectiveness and efficiency in logistics planning. Planning processes that are characterized by rule-based dimensioning design and control logics are particularly suitable for automation. Adaptive process models and its subsequently automated execution by workflow engines reduce the workload for logistic planers, enable faster changes, and prevent planning errors. Moreover, the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for material provision tools enables the immediate detection of status changes and the triggering of automated planning tasks. This paper presents a model of an intelligent logistics system that partially automates the planning steps for relocating items within industrial supermarkets using intelligent sensors and workflow management systems.

Big Data Intelligent Networking

The thirteen articles in this special section focus on big data analytics for intelligent networking. The Internet of Things (IoT) is likely to have a significant impact on human lives as new services and applications are developed through integration of the physical and digital worlds. IoT is an umbrella term referring to a large number of sensing and actuation devices connected to the Internet. The vast amounts of data will be generated from those devices and form big data to provide smarter living and/or improve production efficiency. The huge amount of data opens new challenges in the era of new data-driven solutions, which also have significant influence on communication networks. Current networks are often designed based on static end-to-end design principles hindering the efficient and intelligent provisioning of big data. This special issue features recent and emerging advances in the areas of big data analytics in networking applications and networking for big data

Towards Intelligent Provisioning of Virtualized Network Functions in Cloud of Things: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Approach

Cloud of Things (CoT) is an integration of Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, where Network Function Virtualization (NFV) can dynamically provide Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) for IoT devices based on service-specific requirements. The provisioning of VNFs in CoT is formulated as an online decision-making problem, but widely-used methods mostly focus on modeling the environment simply to obtain the optimal solution. Valuable historical experience on provisioning is ignored and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for different types of CoT services are also not considered, which leads to inefficient and coarse-gained provisioning. In this paper, an intelligent provisioning framework of VNFs is proposed for adaptive CoT resource scheduling according to traffic identification of heterogeneous network services. The framework leverages a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based model to make decisions based on the complexity of network environments and traffic variances. In this model, a policy gradient DRL algorithm, namely, Policy Optimization using Kronecker-Factored Trust Region (POKTR) is adopted to obtain the stable performance by a novel surrogate objective function. Experimental results verify that our framework improves the QoS in CoT by real-time VNFs provisioning. The DRL-based model with POKTR algorithm reduces network congestion and achieves higher throughput than other DRL algorithms.

Balkans SOE centre in Istanbul during the Second World War. The case Salvet Lufti Tozan alias Pants

Salvet Lufti Tozan was a Turkish subject of Bosnian origin, bi-lingual in Serbian and Turkish, speaking French fluently. He has a dynamic character. All his life he appears to have been attracted by revolution and intrigue. Prior to and after the outbreak of Second World War, several members of British Embassy in Ankara, frequently were guests at the Tozan property, among them Commander Wolfson who enlisted Tozan’s support in the provision of naval and other intelligence. During the Second World War, Tozan was one of the most important Special Operation Executive’s agents in Balkans. Our paper aim is to present his activity and specially his contacts with Iuliu Maniu.

A system for generating research impact visualizations over medical research groups

Universities routinely employ research impact assessment mechanisms and tools for grant proposals, resource allocation decisions, and funding budget requests. These impact metrics are often displayed in interactive visualizations and dashboard displays. There is a growing trend for libraries to be cooperatively involved in the gathering and provision of research intelligence and impact data. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library has developed a system for generating research impact visualizations for research groups within the newly established Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Using the Elsevier Scopus database Applications Programming Interface, we have created a series of scripts to extract article, conference paper, and book chapter metadata and build supporting database tables. From the database, a dashboard visualization of scaled and clickable display bubbles and publication number labels is generated for each individual researcher. The interactive visualization can retrieve articles and papers published over the last five years, citation information (as cited by number) for each researcher, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health grant matches, and a visualization of the coauthored papers for each author within the cohort. These activities enhance the role of the library in supporting knowledge management and scholarly communication and in fostering campus partnerships and collaborations.

Police community engagement and outreach in a counterterrorism context

ABSTRACTPolice engagement of Muslim communities to prevent terrorism is fraught with tension. This paper presents results from in-depth interviews with members of the Australian Federal Police Community Liaison Team (CLT) to understand the practice of community engagement and the tactical and strategic considerations that are required when police engage Muslim communities. The interview data illustrate the different attributes of trust judged as essential to effective engagement by CLT members, with displays of integrity regarded as important. Data demonstrate how Australian Federal Police liaison officers navigate the fine line between intelligence gathering and community engagement, with the provision of intelligence seen as an outcome rather than an aim of effective outreach. Strategies to manage the community impact from counterterrorism arrests are explored, with the interview data indicating that forms of outreach have some inherent limitations due to the contingencies surrounding counterterrorism operations. The uncertainties and risks of engaging some hard to reach groups, such as Muslim youth are highlighted. Evidence of the outputs and outcomes of engagement efforts are illustrated, with the willingness of Muslims to voluntarily approach members of the CLT regarded as an important outcome. Broader lessons for counterterrorism community engagement are highlighted.