Toolkit In Order Research Articles

Prevention of corruption in the acts of the national police of Ukraine: administrative and legal dimension

The relevance of the research lies in the fact that the existing issue of preventing corruption among police officers is not only a problem of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, but also a national issue, in particular. The purpose of the article is to analyze the typology of corruption in the bodies of the National Police of Ukraine. In the context of scientific intelligence, a number of general scientific and sectoral methods are applied, in particular, the method of analysis, synthesis, historical and logical, dialectical, historical and synergistic, systemic methods. It is noted that corruption in police bodies is a phenomenon that poses a risk not only to established members of the structural divisions of law enforcement agencies, but also to one that, in its individual content, exerts a negative influence on the breakdown of social relations, the breakdown of the state, which presents individual rights as such on the dominance of the doctrines of the rule of law, equality of all before the law, which are characteristic of a democratic legal state. The article states that the prevention of corruption in the ranks of law enforcement officers is a component of the state’s general anti-corruption policy, which correlates with the state’s intentions to prevent this negative phenomenon, includes its own strategy for the development of public and legal relations regarding the neutralization or localization of the actions of officials of the NP of Ukraine (factors ) corruption and consequential influence with the support of the congruence of the legal toolkit in order to achieve the set goal, which is established in the field of implementation of the tasks set before it by the National Police of Ukraine. At the same time, an important factor in preventing corruption offenses among police officers is the growth of their civic consciousness. Attention was drawn to the fact that corruption offenses among police officers are an extremely dangerous phenomenon, which, unfortunately, is characteristic of foreign police officers as well. It is noted that corruption can be overcome under circumstances when each police officer will feel a direct responsibility for the fulfillment of a common desire - the formation of a police that is actually independent from corruption. It is noted that a significant number of foreign countries managed to form a modern effective mechanism for preventing corruption offenses among police officers. Considering the European choice of our state, there is a definite need to develop and implement an innovative anti­corruption policy taking into account the positive factors of the existing international experience.

A short-list of pairing-friendly curves resistant to the Special TNFS algorithm at the 192-bit security level

For more than two decades, pairings have been a fundamental tool for designing elegant cryptosystems, varying from digital signature schemes to more complex privacy-preserving constructions. However, the advancement of quantum computing threatens to undermine public-key cryptography. Concretely, it is widely accepted that a future large-scale quantum computer would be capable to break any public-key cryptosystem used today, rendering today's public-key cryptography obsolete and mandating the transition to quantum-safe cryptographic solutions. This necessity is enforced by numerous recognized government bodies around the world, including NIST which initiated the first open competition in standardizing post-quantum (PQ) cryptographic schemes, focusing primarily on digital signatures and key encapsulation/public-key encryption schemes. Despite the current efforts in standardizing PQ primitives, the landscape of complex, privacy-preserving cryptographic protocols, e.g., zkSNARKs/zkSTARKs, is at an early stage. Existing solutions suffer from various disadvantages in terms of efficiency and compactness and in addition, they need to undergo the required scrutiny to gain the necessary trust in the academic and industrial domains. Therefore, it is believed that the migration to purely quantum-safe cryptography would require an intermediate step where current classically secure protocols and quantum-safe solutions will co-exist. This is enforced by the report of the Commercial National Security Algorithm Suite version 2.0, mandating transition to quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms by 2033 and suggesting to incorporate ECC at 192-bit security in the meantime. To this end, the present paper aims at providing a comprehensive study on pairings at 192-bit security level. We start with an exhaustive review in the literature to search for all possible recommendations of such pairing constructions, from which we extract the most promising candidates in terms of efficiency and security, with respect to the advanced Special TNFS attacks. Our analysis is focused, not only on the pairing computation itself, but on additional operations that are relevant in pairing-based applications, such as hashing to pairing groups, cofactor clearing and subgroup membership testing. We implement all functionalities of the most promising candidates within the RELIC cryptographic toolkit in order to identify the most efficient pairing implementation at 192-bit security and provide extensive experimental results.

VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) ASSISTED GEOMATICS LAB DEVELOPMENT

Abstract. Virtual Reality (VR) lab components provide the opportunity to explore the efficacy of this technology on Geomatics education and lay the groundwork for the VR as an emerging education paradigm. Geomatics education at UF has been innovatively optimized towards a hybrid education system, with most of the curriculum taught using distance communication. Nevertheless, Geomatics teaching still involves intensive indoor and outdoor lab components. VR labs enable learning and practicing lab techniques as an alternative or supplement to live lab activities. These technically and physically demanding activities require intensive training on expensive lab equipment. The labs often go beyond allocated lab time and are susceptible to bad weather conditions. Using VR technology provides an integrated learning experience that mixes instructions with simulated physical activities, eliminating many limitations associated with lab instruction. In this study, we demonstrate the development of the total station device centring and levelling lab activity using the Meta Quest 2 Headset on the Unity Software Development Platform, as well as Unity’s XR Interaction Toolkit. Development challenges related to different setup components (e.g., bubble-level setup, effective gravity for editing tripod placement, component intractability) are presented. Among multiple challenges of using Unity for the development of an educational VR application, adjusting the functions of the XR Toolkit in order to get the desired outcomes stands as one of the largest difficulties. Unity’s physics is not intuitive for the intended purposes of this project, so multiple technical workarounds were required including the use of Unity’s UI (User Interface) features.

Study of the cross section biasing technique using GEANT4 and determination of the parasitic neutrons at N.C.S.R. “Demokritos”

A simulation code was developed using the GEANT4 [1] toolkit in order to determine the behavior of the neutron production beams generated by proton induced reactions while applying the cross section biasing technique [2]. As the application of the biasing technique can cause a change in the physical processes occurring during the simulation, the specific implemented technique was tested via control simulations to determine any deviations of the results from the theoretically expected ones. Different materials, geometries and biasing factors were used in order to qualify and quantify the discrepancies between the unbiased and the biased simulations.
 One of the main reactions used for the production of the neutron beam at the Tandem accelerator laboratory of N.C.S.R. “Demokritos” [3] is the 3H(p,n)3He one. In the geometry of the main tritiated target, elements such as molybdenum, copper and titanium are included. During the interaction of the proton beam with them, it is possible to produce neutrons that will “contaminate” the main neutron beam. These neutrons are called parasitic and their quantification is necessary in order to avoid obtaining erroneous results in cross section measurements on the various targets under study.[4] By constructing the proper geometry and using the GEANT4 code mentioned above, the determination of the parasitic neutrons is achieved with optimal statistical results in short computational times, while the discrepancies between the unbiased and the biased results remain minimal.

Development and Application of Particle Transport Monte Carlo Simulation Modeling Toolkit

In particle transport Monte Carlo simulation, the manual modeling method is not suitable for complex geometric models. A Monte Carlo Simulation Modeling Toolkit (pyMCMT) is developed based on Python language. The toolkit can generate input card in several classical format such as MCNP and GDML format automatically. In this paper, two typical applications are presented based on the pyMCMT toolkit: 1, constructing a multilayer circular geometric model in complex density distribution by pyMCMT toolkit in order to satisfy the requirement of building large-space fine model with the influence of blast wave. A two-dimensional adaptive model is built for non-uniform atmospheric induced by blast wave. The number of the cells in this model is reduced vastly with the same model resolution; 2, producing the optimized weight window parameter using the mesh-based weight window variance reduction combined with density iteration method which is realized to solve the high statistical fluctuation and low counting efficiency problem in deep penetration process. The successful application of pyMCMT shows that pyMCMT is a modularized, parameterized, customizable and easy-to-debug toolkit for particle transport Monte Carlo simulation modeling, which can improve the modeling efficiency tremendously.

TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM FOR THE LANGUAGE RESEARCH: SYNERGISTIC CONTEXT

The globalization changes in the world contribute to the growing importance of scientific knowledge in general and fundamental science in particular. Current difficulties in understanding of the mechanisms of possible changes in the language system require attention to enriching the methodology of linguistics with an interdisciplinary scientific toolkit in order to obtain new linguistic knowledge, and also reorients researchers from the position of analysis to the position of synthesis.

Assessment of pharmacovigilance activities among pharmacist interns in Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundPharmacovigilance (PV) and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting is at the core of the services and functions of a pharmacist. Pharmacist interns undergoing their one-year mandatory internship program are expected to be armed with this tool kit in order to provide adequate pharmaceutical services in all areas of pharmacy practice.ObjectivesThis study sought to assess the knowledge and perception of pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction reporting among pharmacist interns in Nigeria.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional study among pharmacist interns in their one-year mandatory internship program across Nigeria. The 32-item semi-structured questionnaires were administered online using simple random sampling with the snowballing technique to recruit the participants in the study. The results were analyzed with IBM SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. The Chi-square test and contingency coefficient were used to determine the association between knowledge of PV and the demographics of the participants.ResultsA total of 450 pharmacist interns participated in this study. The participants' knowledge of pharmacovigilance and ADR is 92.5%. About 96.2% of respondents feel that responses to newly released pharmaceuticals must be recorded, compared to 79.1% for older drugs already on the market. There is a high correlation between the duration of the internship program and understanding of PV and ADR reporting among participants. More than fifty percent of respondents concur that ADR reporting is critical, while more than eighty percent concur that ADR reporting is required for pharmacists, the most significant health professionals in ADR reporting. The participants' length of participation in an internship program and their internship location significantly impact their opinion of ADR reporting. Seventy-four percent (74%) of respondents from tertiary hospitals say their internship center encourages ADR reporting.ConclusionMost participants have a solid understanding of PV and ADR reporting, but perceptions of PV and ADR reporting are substantially correlated with internship location and program length. Active measures should be implemented to ensure that all pharmacy interns comprehend and embrace PV and ADR reporting as their exclusive duty.

Analyzing asymmetries and praxis in aDNA research: A bioanthropological critique

AbstractRecent developments in molecular‐biology‐oriented studies regarding ancient DNA (aDNA) from human remains have brought into the contemporary discussions within archaeologists, bioanthropologists, and geneticists a set of disputes, tensions, and collaborations that need to be analyzed in practical and epistemological terms. We emphasize the relevance that techno‐scientific collaborations have in this context focused mainly on human evolution and the peopling of the world. These international academic collaborations constitute an ecology in which aDNA studies are currently being worked out. An ecosystem that reproduces the geo‐political‐economic asymmetries within science, and more specifically in aDNA research, which in turn opens the possibility for thinking from an ethical and epistemological perspective about the economic and power differentials and imbalances of these asymmetric relationships. We argue for building a critical conceptual tool kit in order to tackle the problematics emerging from such investigations. We propose and define three core concepts: academic sovereignty, sustainability, and intermediary. Additionally, we offer the term academic vulnerability as a consequence of cultural vulnerability. The frame we offer here provides a structure to interrogate the dynamics of vulnerabilities in the current context of scientific praxis within aDNA research and illustrate the interplay between hegemonic science and the heritage of developing countries.

Improvement of the mechanism for managing the investment activities of an industrial concern

Competitive development of enterprises of the military industrial complex is determined by the implementation of promising investment projects. Amid a global reduction in military spending, military industrial enterprises need to improve their investment performance. This can be achieved due to a combination of factors, the strategic orientation of investment projects to the target guidelines for the organization’s activities being the most important of them. In this regard, the issue of creating an efficient system for managing the investment activities of an enterprise becomes urgent, because such system would contribute to the strategic focus of the ongoing investment projects and efficiently and quickly meet modern challenges. An economic mechanism for managing investment activities and special business processes, as well as procedures for the development and implementation of investment projects and programs by the life cycle stages described through algorithms have been developed for this purpose based on L. Hurwitz's theory of economic mechanisms. The strategic analysis of the activities of a Russian military industrial concern has allowed to formulate the concept of managing the entire concern and to determine the principles, methods, and tools of the business process. Improving the system for managing a set of projects as part of implementing the strategic objectives of the concern has required to improve, streamline, and unify the entire strategic management toolkit in order to increase the investment performance, with due consideration of the role models of responsibility centers and the current legislation. The automated information systems for strategic development and investment project management have been designed based on the outcomes of the research.

Cloud Simulation and Virtualization for Testing of Critical Energy Infrastructure Components

Cloud computing and cloud infrastructure are beginning to be applied in order to ensure effective functioning of management system of Critical Energy Infrastructure. This is improved informativeness of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system by the application of additional Wide-area Measurement and Control Systems (WAMCSs), since most of all processing and transition operations of data information streams of the WAMCSs may be performed by using on clouds. In light of these circumstances, it is importantly to get extensive modeling results considering wide area range of input data and latency time between critical energy infrastructure components and cloud infrastructure components. However, researchers were not, yet, had possibility to receive more adequate results based only mathematical modeling process. In this case, simulation models considering the cost time are more preferable than mathematical models. In the spirit development of this conception, authors are proposing to employ the simulation model based on virtual technology and Matlab Simulink toolkit in order to get modeling results for more important on-line mode of functioning of the WAMCSs.

Study of the FTM Detector Performance with Garfield++

The Fast Timing Micro-Pattern Gaseous Detector (FTM) has been recently introduced as a promising alternative for applications that require improved time resolution, such as high-luminosity accelerators and medical imaging. The FTM consists of a stack of several coupled gas layers alternating drift and multiplication stages. The time resolution is determined by the time of the fastest signal among all amplification stages, read out by external electrodes through capacitive couplings. In the present work, we use the Garfield++ simulation toolkit in order to investigate and optimize the FTM performances. Gain, timing, and efficiency of the FTM are studied as a function of different parameters, such as detector geometry, gas mixture, and applied electric fields. The simulations that are presented in this paper show that a time resolution as low as 160 ps can be reached with a 32-layers FTM.

Airports’ Crisis Management Processes and Stakeholders Involved

Airports are exposed to various physical incidents that can be classified as aviation and non-aviation related incidents, including terrorist attacks, bombings, natural disasters (e.g. earthquake or tsunami and man-made disasters such as terrorist attacks) etc. (Kanyi, Kamau, & Mireri, 2016). In addition to this, cyber-attacks to airport operations are emerging especially with the increasing use of Information Systems (IS), such as electronic tags for baggage handling and tracking, remote check-in, smart boarding gates, faster and more reliable security screening technologies and biometric immigration controls etc. Any physical or cyber incident that causes loss of infrastructure or massive patient surge, such as natural disasters, terrorist acts, or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive hazards could affect the airports’ services provision and could cause overwhelming pressure. During the crisis management, several stakeholders that have different needs and requirements, get involved in the process, trying to cooperate, respond and support recovery and impact mitigation. The aim of this paper is to present a holistic security agenda that defines the stakeholders involved in the respective processes followed during the crisis management cycle. This agenda is based both on normative literature, such as relevant standards, guidelines, and practices and on knowledge and feedback extrapolated from a case study conducted in the context of the SATIE project (H2020-GA832969). In meeting paper’s aim, initially the normative review of the phases of the crisis management cycle (preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation) in the context of airports as well as general practices applied, are presented. Moreover, the key airport stakeholders and operation centres involved in airports operations, as well as during the crisis management are analysed. By combining the information collected, a holistic cyber and physical crisis management cycle including the stakeholders and the relevant processes are proposed. The crisis management process is taken into consideration into the SATIE project, which aims to build a security toolkit in order to protect critical air transport infrastructures against combined cyber-physical threats. This toolkit will rely on a complete set of semantic rules that will improve the interoperability between existing systems and enhanced security solutions, in order to ensure more efficient threat prevention, threat and anomaly detection, incident response and impact mitigation, across infrastructures, populations and environment.

SIMplifying Palliative Extubations: A Two-Part OSCE in a Simulation Center to Assess Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) in Hospice and Palliative Medicine (TH315)

•Identify the critical steps of a palliative extubation procedure.•Assess how the Palliative Extubation objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) applies to the clinical competencies of EPAs in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.•Demonstrate the innovative Palliative Extubation OSCE simulation.•Construct an educational toolkit in order to adapt and implement the Palliative Extubation OSCE simulation to your own institution. Healthcare professionals require education and practice to master their communication and procedure skills, especially in potentially distressing circumstances such as palliative extubations. Palliative extubation refers to removal of mechanical ventilator support when, based on an individual's goal of care, it is thought to be prolonging the dying process rather than helping to support through a reversible illness. Removing the endotracheal tube will allow a natural death to occur. In order to provide competent and compassionate care for patients and family members before, during, and after a palliative extubation, healthcare providers must provide a clear explanation of this complex procedure, show proficiency in performing the procedure, and demonstrate leadership skills. One method of evaluating a healthcare provider's competency in the domains of performing a palliative extubation and communication, is through use of an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE). An OSCE in a simulation center is an effective method to teach theoretical knowledge, improve hands-on skills, and assess clinical competencies while also reducing the risk of harm to patients and providers, especially for scenarios that do not occur on a daily basis. A simulation provides the advantage of providing a controlled, standardized situation, allowing for multiple interventions to be applied. This concurrent session describes an innovative Palliative Extubation OSCE in a simulation center using a mannequin as the patient and a standardized patient (SP) actor as a family member. The OSCE is divided into two parts—part 1: the family meeting and part 2: the extubation procedure. This session describes how the OSCE is structured to teach and assess the clinical competencies of the 17 EPAs in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The session will conclude with a demonstration of the Palliative Extubation OSCE followed by small group discussions on how to implement the OSCE at participants' own institutions.

The evolving role of organizational theory within economic sociology

AbstractOrganizational theory was one of the roots of the “new” economic sociology. In recent years, a set of complementary research programs have come to the fore that augment our understanding of the social structuring of markets. These include an interest in the role of conventions and commensuration, market devices, the performativity of economics, and the role of morality in the construction of markets. These other interests have come to enrich our conception of the ways in which “the social” structures market activities. While this has decentered some of the emphasis on organizations, there are still active research programs pushing forward new ideas that are focused on organizations, institutions, and networks in economic sociology. We discuss some of the recent work on organizational logics, inter‐ and intra‐organizational networks, and social movements and organization. We note there has also been some hybridity as scholars borrow from each other's toolkits in order to deepen our knowledge of the way the economy works. Organizational theory remains a main theoretical mainstay of economic sociology, but it has now been joined by additional perspectives.

Computer Simulation of the Angular Distribution of Electrons and Bremsstrahlung Photons in Tantalum Converter

The present work is dedicated to study of the possibilities of improving the production method of 11C and 18F medical isotopes using a linear electron accelerator. Experimental studies of 11C and 18F isotopes production by the photonuclear technique were carried out in [1]. Various targets were irradiated by bremsstrahlung photons following by measurements targets’ activities. This experimental research has been carried out in the energy range from 10 to 40 MeV. The current work studies an angular distribution of bremsstrahlung photons in order to estimate the possibilities of producing maximum achievable levels of medical isotopes 18F and 11С activities. The angular distribution of bremsstrahlung photons is an important property of the irradiation stand which contains an assembly of targets. This important property allows designing necessary changes in the target assembly setup used to produce medical isotopes. The research presented in the current work was done as a computer simulation. The computer software package ‘KIPT’ was developed in С++ programming language, using the Geant4 toolkit in order to obtain the angular distribution of bremsstrahlung photons. Experimental setup materials as well as structural elements positions were defined in the DetectorConstruction class of our program. The parameters of an electron beam were defined in the PrimaryGeneratorAction class. The electron beam diameter was defined as 8 mm, energy Ее=36.7 MeV, corresponding to the real experiment carried out at the “Accelerator” Science and Research Establishment of Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology [1]. Models of physical processes occurring while the electron beam crosses the target assembly were defined in the PhysicsList class. All classes and modules necessary for the analysis of simulation results were included to our program together with visualization modules. Visualization modules use the OpenGL graphics library and the Qt5 software to represent the relative position of experimental setup parts and to visualize particle trajectories. As a result of this work, the angular distributions were obtained for the beam of electrons and bremsstrahlung photons directly before the target. This result will allow target assembly parameter optimization for optimal production of medical isotopes by the photonuclear technique.

Status-seeking policies of middle powers in status clubs: the case of Turkey in the G20

ABSTRACTThis study applies the theoretical framework of Social Identity Theory (SIT) and its three main strategies, social mobility, social competition and social creativity to Turkey as an emerging middle power in the G20. In doing so, it uses Role Theory’s toolkit in order to assess the impact of Turkey’s middle power role conception, role expectations, and role performance on identity management strategies pursued by Turkey vis-à-vis its middle power peers in the G20 (namely Canada, Australia, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa). The findings of this study acknowledge that Turkey’s status-seeking policies as an emerging middle power are more prone to pursuing social mobility and social creativity rather than social competition. It concludes that Turkey’s weakness in enacting its G20 middle power role and its failure in bridging this middle power role to its middle power status in turns it to an underperforming middle ranked country in the G20.

Quantifying Support for the Null Hypothesis in Psychology: An Empirical Investigation

In the traditional statistical framework, nonsignificant results leave researchers in a state of suspended disbelief. In this study, we examined, empirically, the treatment and evidential impact of nonsignificant results. Our specific goals were twofold: to explore how psychologists interpret and communicate nonsignificant results and to assess how much these results constitute evidence in favor of the null hypothesis. First, we examined all nonsignificant findings mentioned in the abstracts of the 2015 volumes of Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Psychological Science ( N = 137). In 72% of these cases, nonsignificant results were misinterpreted, in that the authors inferred that the effect was absent. Second, a Bayes factor reanalysis revealed that fewer than 5% of the nonsignificant findings provided strong evidence (i.e., BF01 > 10) in favor of the null hypothesis over the alternative hypothesis. We recommend that researchers expand their statistical tool kit in order to correctly interpret nonsignificant results and to be able to evaluate the evidence for and against the null hypothesis.

A post-processing module based on Cressman’s analysis to improve the Wind Energy Simulation Toolkit mapping system

In this work, a post-processing module based on Cressman’s method of objective analysis is added to the Wind Energy Simulation Toolkit in order to improve the accuracy of the numerical wind atlas of Cuba. Mean wind speed surface observations at 35 meteorological stations and mean wind speed observations at 10, 30, 50, and 100 m height above ground level collected at a network of 58 observation towers are assimilated in the Cressman analysis. Furthermore, the 3-year numerical wind atlas generated for the same period of time is considered as the first guess for the Cressman method. A new wind atlas of Cuba is generated and verified using observation records at 32 meteorological stations and 10 observation towers distributed over the country. In addition, the capability of the new post-processing scheme to adding information on the temporal variability of the wind resource is explored.

The strategic impact of information technology deployment, part 4

The growth and rate of change of information technologies demands that investigation of its challenges and the constituents of its successful deployment remain at the forefront of scholarly endeavor. The contexts of technology adoption, in terms of geography, sector and organizational size, require ongoing investigation for typological trends and deficiencies. Future information technology research should seek to further its methodological toolkit in order to develop greater richness of insight. Business leaders of the future will require enhanced understanding of information technologies, and therefore training and education in the subjects will need to be provided accordingly.

How to support fuel‐efficient driving?

Energy efficient personal transportation requires fuel-efficient and route aware driving. Driving coaching systems can provide to drivers all the information and guidance that is needed to learn these skills. However, persuading drivers to change their driving behaviour is a challenging task. The authors identify functional, design, safety, and persuasive features for systems supporting fuel-efficiency. Moreover, they analyse how these features are supported by state-of-the-art systems targeting reduced fuel consumption. Finally, based on their analysis, they discuss open issues and opportunities for future development of fuel-efficiency support systems. The literature and the reviewed research in this study illustrate the needs for overall situation assessment and benefits of careful and multifaceted approach for systems design when it comes to eco-driving: an effective system will make use of a versatile design toolkit in order to obtain enduring behavioural results.