bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Novel Acoustic Barkhausen Noise Transducer and its Comparison with Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer
Authors: Wilson John  , Tian Gui Yun  , Edwards Rachel S.  , Dixon Steve
Published: February 2025

The analysis of magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN) has been used to provide information about the stress state and microstructural properties of ferromagnetic materials. Recent work has shown that a technique using acoustic Barkhausen noise (ABN) detection can provide the similar capabilities as traditional MBN along with additional information for defect characterisation and thickness measurement in a single system. Because the detection of ABN using a piezoelectric sensor can be carried out at any point on the material surface, as well as analysing ABN for microstructural characterisation, the interaction of the surface propagating waves with defects can also be analysed and used for defect characterisation, along with frequency analysis for thickness measurement. As with electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) systems, the ABN technique applies totally different physical principles to traditional ultrasonic methods and couplant is not needed for excitation. The work is carried out through experimental investigations of calibrated steel samples with machined defects using the ABN system, in comparison to readings taken using an EMAT system. Test results show that the ABN technique has potential applications in providing a comprehensive system for material and stress characterisation along with the additional capabilities of defect characterisation and material thickness measurement.
Modelling and Measurement of Decarburisation of Steels Using a Multi-frequency Electromagnetic Sensor
Authors: Hao X.J.  , Yin W.  , Strangwood M.  , Peyton A.J.  , Morris P.F.  , Davis C.L.
Published: February 2025

Decarburisation of high carbon steel has been simulated, using composite samples comprised of a 316 stainless steel (paramagnetic) core and a surrounding tube of ferritic steel (ferromagnetic) with thicknesses between 100 and 600 μm, for determining the potential for on-line measurement during steel processing. Decarburization samples have also been generated, for off-line measurements, by heat treatment of an Fe-0.8 wt% C steel for various times in air at 1000–1200°C. A multi-frequency (10–106Hz) electromagnetic sensor was used to determine variations in inductance (due to differences in permeability) as a function of decarburisation depth. The relationship between sensor output and decarburised layer type/thickness has been modelled using finite element software.
The Role of Nuclear Weapons in the Modern World
Authors: Khyrapin Alexander
Published: February 2025

Deterrence policy was officially acknowledged as a constituent part of national policy after the advent of nuclear weapons and therein became a main instrument of military confrontation. The role of nuclear weapons as a means of deterring aggression will be preserved for the foreseeable future. Deterrence as the basis for strategic stability, however, may be endangered by various military developments, including by: the creation of the global anti ballistic missile system; attempts to reach strategic military dominance by re-equipping ballistic missiles with conventional warheads and retaining a nuclear potential; the possible lifting of restrictions on the deployment of weapons in outer space and the creation of military bases in zones of so-called “vital interests”.
Iranian Nuclear Problem: Prospects for a Solution
Authors: Pikaev Alexander
Published: February 2025

Prospects for the resolution of the Iranian nuclear problem are still dim. The disclosure of the secret Iranian facilities dealt a serious blow to Tehran's assertions that it had not pursued any illegal nuclear activities. The present approach to the solution of the Iranian nuclear problem has little chance for success. The position of the world community towards the Iranian nuclear program can be characterized as the policy without a stick and carrot. Fortunately, in terms of technology, the Iranian nuclear program does not have the capability to create a nuclear weapons program quickly, even if Iran's leadership had set this as its aim.
The “Real World” Web Search Problem: Bridging The Gap Between Academic and Commercial Understanding of Issues and Methods
Authors: Glover Eric
Published: February 2025

In the area of web search, there is a disconnect between some of the research in the field and what is actually done within a large-scale commercial search engine. Everything from measuring the wrong things to the objectives of the research, have the potential to produce work that although academically interesting, has little commercial value. This paper attempts to reduce this gap by summarizing my experience as both a researcher and an engineer at commercial search engines.
Website Privacy Preservation for Query Log Publishing
Authors: Poblete Barbara  , Spiliopoulou Myra  , Baeza-Yates Ricardo
Published: February 2025

In this article we introduce and discuss briefly the issue of privacy preservation for the publication of search engine query logs. In particular we present a new privacy concern, website privacy as a special case of business privacy.
Link Analysis in Networks of Entities
Authors: Feldman Ronen
Published: February 2025

This chapter presents a link analysis approach for analyzing large networks of entities extracted from document collections. We assume that an initial NER and relationship extraction was performed and we are interested in analyzing the structure of the network of these entities. We start by presenting the basic definitions and then follow to focus on centrality analysis and computing equivalence classes on entities within the network. We use the network of the 9-11 hijackers as a running example.
Mining the Web to Build a Complete, Large-Scale Language Model
Authors: Grefenstette Gregory
Published: February 2025

In order to detect the extraordinary, a computer must have a model of ordinary interactions. There is enough text on the web in the 420 languages that are represented there for language models to be built. All the text available for most languages can be crawled in a few months. These language models can show how words are normally associated. Unusual associations can then be detected automatically. This article presents an overview our work in building a very large and complete language model from the web for the French language.
Statistical Techniques for Fraud Detection, Prevention and Assessment
Authors: Hand David J.  , Weston David J.
Published: February 2025

Statistical, data mining, machine learning and other data analytic tools are important weapons in the battle against fraud. The fraud environment is reviewed and the magnitude of fraud described. Banking fraud, and especially plastic card fraud, is examined in detail. Tools for evaluating fraud detection systems are described and different classes of detection methods are outlined. To illustrate, the novel method of peer group analysis is described in detail, and illustrated in real applications.
Practical Feature Selection: from Correlation to Causality
Authors: Guyon Isabelle
Published: February 2025

Feature selection encompasses a wide variety of methods for selecting a restricted number of input variables or “features”, which are “relevant” to a problem at hand. In this chapter, we guide practitioners through the maze of methods, which have recently appeared in the literature, particularly for supervised feature selection. Starting from the simplest methods of feature ranking with correlation coefficients, we branch in various direction and explore various topics, including “conditional relevance”, “local relevance”, “multivariate selection”, and “causal relevance”. We make recommendations for assessment methods and stress the importance of matching the complexity of the method employed to the available amount of training data. Software and teaching material associated with this tutorial are available [12].
Money Laundering Detection Using Data Mining
Authors: Duman Ekrem  , Buyukkaya Ayse
Published: February 2025

The money made from illegal activities is a main threat to the global economy. If the overall welfare of the people is wanted to be increased the money laundering activities should be stopped. Many software packages which aim to detect suspicious transactions are developed and available commercially. These solutions are mostly rule based. That is a list of suspicious transactions is generated where their suspiciousness is determined by some rules. If these lists are too long, it would be very difficult to inspect them in full but if they are kept shorter then there is the risk of failing to inspect an actually fraudulent transaction. To overcome this drawback of the rule based solutions, we suggest a two phase anti money laundering system which provides more flexibility with the use of data mining.
Machine Learning for Intrusion Detection
Authors: Laskov Pavel  , Rieck Konrad  , Müller Klaus-Robert
Published: February 2025

Detection of unknown attacks in network traffic is gaining increasing importance as modern attacks are characterized by high variabilities and mutation rates. Traditional signature-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) are not able to detect unknown attacks due to failing availability of appropriate signatures. We present an alternative approach based on machine learning techniques which enable automatic construction of profiles for normal packet payloads and detection of deviations thereof. Experimental evaluation of our approach showed a remarkable detection accuracy at low false positive rates and a major improvement in comparison to the widely used open-source IDS Snort.
User Modeling and Machine Learning: A Survey
Authors: Artières Thierry
Published: February 2025

This paper presents a survey of UM tasks and of related machine learning and data mining problems. It first proposes a panorama of UM applications merged in a few categories according to the similarity of the tasks from the machine learning point of view. Then it details a little more details usage mining for hypermedia and web-based applications.
Finding Solutions to Mixed Route Strategies for Transporting Hazardous Materials
Authors: Bell Michael G.H.  , Kanturska Urszula
Published: February 2025

Uncertainty is intrinsic to decision-making. Decisions regarding the use of road networks in the transportation of hazardous materials are no exception. Commonly, cautious shipment of hazardous materials is focused on identifying a single safest route between a pair of points. Here we demonstrate that for repeated shipments, where there is complete uncertainty about link incident probabilities, the safest strategy is in general to use a mix of routes determined by the worst case scenario probabilities. Using game-theoretic approach embedded in a Defender-Attacker-Defender framework, it is shown that maximum exposure to risk can be significantly reduced by sharing shipments between routes. The approach posits predefined disruption, attack or failure scenarios and then considers how to use road network so as to minimize the maximum expected loss in the event these scenarios materialise. The properties of the optimality conditions are explored leading to the formulation of an equivalent linear programming problem. A solution algorithm suitable for use with standard traffic assignment software is presented together with a numerical example relating to the central London road network.
The Trade-offs in Rail-Truck Intermodal Transportation of Hazardous Materials: an Illustrative Case Study
Authors: Verma Manish  , Verter Vedat
Published: February 2025

Intermodal transportation has sustained a promising growth rate over the past two decades and continues to be one of the rapidly growing segments of the transportation industry. Intermodal transportation is increasingly being used to move hazardous materials, and most of the studies underline the irreversible nature of this trend. In this paper, we make a first attempt to develop an understanding of the risk-cost-time trade-offs that underlie decisions pertaining to dangerous goods shipments via a rail-truck intermodal transportation system. A realistic case study that focuses on transportation of both dangerous goods and regular freight among one 100 shipper-receiver pairs in Canada is developed, and an intelligent enumeration algorithm to solve the problem is presented.
Risk Assessment for Coupled Critical Infrastructures
Authors: Udovyk Oleg
Published: February 2025

We provide an overview for policy-makers and opinion leaders of the physical structure and of the governance structures and processes for electricity, gas and water supply, transport and systems for general information and communication services. We also summarize their vulnerabilities and the main drivers of these vulnerabilities, as well as possible political and institutional shortcomings. Based on our findings, we outline a number of technical, management and organizational strategies and policy options that may help to reduce the probability of disruption to these systems and consequent interruptions to the vital services they supply. We offer, additionally, some suggestions for areas in which further study may be needed before definitive policy recommendations can be made.
The Ukrainian Response System for Event of Accidents in Radioactive Material Transportation
Authors: Zlobenko Borys
Published: February 2025

Transportation of radioactive materials takes on international character today: many countries those producing electric power at NPPs, need foreign sources of materials and service to support the fuel cycle. Ukraine is a party of multilateral international agreements related to cooperation in movement of nuclear materials. These agreements set forth the main principles of cooperation in radioactive material transportation and civil liability for nuclear damage that can be caused to the environment in transportation, procedure for mitigation of accident consequences, etc. Accident prevention at transportation of radioactive materials is of prime importance since this process is the most vulnerable from the terroristic threat standpoint.
Policy Change and the Accommodating Workplace: Issues, Barriers, and Opportunities
Authors: Baker Paul M.A.  , Moon Nathan W.
Published: February 2025

A conceptual framework of workplace accommodation issues associated with the employment of people with disabilities and the aging was developed to help identify policy barriers and opportunities, using online policy Delphi Method, an iterative polling instrument used to assess key issues and intervention options. This paper presents the results of research conducted toward articulating policy initiatives that address the key issues critical to the development of effective approaches for the implementation of workplace accommodations.
Illegal, Trafficked, Enslaved? Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons in Russia
Authors: Tyuryukanova Elena
Published: February 2025

In the era of the globalization, undesired human trafficking emerged as the one of global problem although it facilitate to becoming the nations closer each other. In 2006 the Bureau of the International Organization for Migration in the Russian Federation (RF), with the support of the European Commission, began a large-scale comprehensive research on migration and human trafficking in Russia. The research which will be argued was part of the bigger project carried out in three pilot regions: Moscow, Astrakhan region, and the Republic of Karelia. The overall goal of the research – analysis of the causes and risks of human trafficking, especially within the main “at-risk” groups, and developing a set of recommendations for all parties involved for countering the spread of human trafficking.
Youth and Terrorism: Example of PKK
Authors: Alkan Necati
Published: February 2025

This study constitutes of four main headings. First the “Profiles of the Militants Active in PKK” is addressed and then the “Correlation between the Youth and Terrorism” is discussed. This is followed by some attempts to explain the “Youth Organisations of PKK” and “The Methods PKK uses to Recruit the Youth”. In the conclusion, some suggestions and solutions are given on the precautions that should be taken to prevent the recruitment of terrorists groups are given.
Criminal Networks in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan and Young Male Sportsmen
Authors: Kupatadze Alexander
Published: February 2025

The paper analyzes criminal networks in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, the structure and activities of these networks trying to explain the involvement of young male sportsmen in organized crime groups. It is argued that lack of opportunities during post-Soviet transition, instability on the political scene, importance of physical force for crime groups, social role of criminals and cultural factors, among other variables contribute to the engagement of sportsmen in criminal groups.
Tomorrow's Players Under Political Violence: The Palestinian Adolescent Case
Authors: Al-Krenawi Alean
Published: February 2025

The aim of the current study was to analyze the social and psychological consequences of ongoing political violence. We predicted an association between exposure to politically violent events with self-reporting psychological symptoms, domestic violence and school violence. We further hypothesized that adolescents reporting good economic status will have less psychological symptomathology and will report less domestic violence in comparison to those reporting moderate to very bad family status. Results also found associations between family violence, family economic status, and psychological symptomatology. Respondents reported low levels of family functioning.
Adolescent Mental Heath and Social Context in Post-War Kosova
Authors: Shanini Mimoza  , Landsman Moshe
Published: February 2025

It is our intention in this paper to discuss two major contentions: One concerns reasons for the precarious mental health of youth in post-war Kosova, and the second concerning what should have been done and should be done as an intervention strategy. We argue that the issues in adolescent mental health in Kosova have become steadily worse over the past twenty years due to a worrisome social, cultural and political context not solved by UN [predicament has been well-intentioned but seriously faulted intervention by the international humanitarian community, which continues to this day.
Legal Aspects of Cyberterrorism
Authors: Brunst Phillip W.
Published: February 2025

The Internet offers a wide range of possibilities for terrorists and terrorist organizations. This includes attacks that can be digitally launched and which can affect data, property or human lives. Other important aspects regard the spreading of terrorist-related contents and the conventional use of the Internet, e.g. for communication with each other. The legal framework that is available to the international community must address new possibilities for terrorists and at the same time respect the liberties of legitimate users.
The Use of Force in Law Enforcement Practices in the Light of ECHR Case-Law
Authors: Yılmaz Ömer
Published: February 2025

Among the diverse practical aspects of the law, the use of force is the one which is criticized most in democratic societies. Although national laws have developed the necessary control systems for the proper use of force, the growing importance of human rights has given rise to some additional international controls. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its organs provide an important protection system in this regard. Especially, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on the proper use of force is a valuable source for law enforcers in fulfilling their daily duties, as well as for the counter-terrorism strategies of the democratic countries.
Evolution in Interaction on Nuclear Affairs between Iran and External Actors
Authors: Croll Peter
Published: February 2025

Iran and the most important international actors are still on a confrontation course. Iran is in the process of developing its uranium enrichment capabilities—and has no intention of suspending these activities. This suspension, however, is what the international community is demanding. The international community—and the United States in particular—are insisting that there will be no negotiations with Iran until this precondition has been fulfilled. Preconditions, in general and here in particular, hinder negotiations.
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones in the Beginning of the XXI-st Century
Authors: Akhtamzyan Ildar
Published: February 2025

Over the last fifty years the idea of establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ) has gained broad support and became a serious factor in the big politics. Along with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), system of the IAEA safeguards and export control structures NWFZs are the key elements of the nuclear non-proliferation regime which is most mature among the other non-proliferation regimes of WMD and means of their delivery. The creation of NWFZs had started during the Cold War and continued after it ended. Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, South East Asia, Africa and Central Asia have been already proclaimed as the nuclear-free zones. The struggle for the creation of nuclear-free and WMD-free (WMDFZ) zones in the regions of political-military tension (the Middle East, the Korean Peninsula etc.) is being underway. The specific situation of establishing each NWFZ left an imprint on its international-legal design and therefore the study of the specific NWFZ agreements allows analyzing the emergence of this important phenomenon of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Nuclear Proliferation in the Middle East: the Quest for a NWFZ
Authors: Al-Assad Wa'el
Published: February 2025

Security in the M.E. is a dynamic concept that is developed on the basis of threat perceptions and defence requirements of the states in the region. The development of a regional security and arms control framework has always been a particularly difficult and daunting task due to the multi-polar nature of the region. All through the 20thCentury, the M.E. has been, and still is, plagued with competing centers of power, internally and externally, which manipulate a number of deeply rooted ethnic, national, and religious conflicts, notwithstanding the painful process of liberation and decolonization that many countries in the region had to go through and is still part of the collective national memory of these nations.
Building Secure IT-Infrastructure of the National Scale
Authors: Yevchuk Igor
Published: February 2025

The main goal of this article is to help customers become an adaptive enterprise. HP's vision of an adaptive enterprise is one that manages supply and demand of IT resources in real time, so the business can quickly capitalize on and manage change. In an adaptive enterprise, every business decision triggers an IT event. The HP Adaptive Enterprise is based on four Design Principles to help you design and deploy IT for maximum agility: these principles are Simplification, Standardization, Modularity and Integration. You need to apply these principles consistently across your business processes, applications and infrastructure.
Informational Sphere of the National Security
Authors: Makhaniok Mikhail  , Naumenko Georgy
Published: February 2025

Actual aspects of improvement of the System of formation, preservation and rational use of the informational resources are discussed. This System makes up the basis of the scientific, technical and spiritual potential of the state and at the same time allows ensuring the constitutional rights and liberties of any citizen to freely seek, receive, transfer, produce and distribute information in any legal way. Successful solution of these problems is impeded by factors and circumstances – “threats” – discussed in the article.
Unified State Register of the Republic of Belarus Problems of Information Protection
Authors: Makhaniok Mikhail  , Valchevskaja Gajane  , Naumenko Georgy  , Vyrvo Vladimir
Published: February 2025

Conception and current state of Unified State Register of Belarus is discussed. The system is designed according to the modular principle. The domestic profile of information protection is determined for each module of the system. Domestic modules and specifications for the system are the basis of certification of every module and the system as the whole. Technical documents are worked out for all USR components in accordance with State Standard requirements, including the technical orders and the design documentation containing the requirements of information protection.
Basics of the Information Communication Security
Authors: Lukatsky Alexey
Published: February 2025

Basics of the Information Communication Security are analyzed They include such aspects as Rogue program Epidemics Localization; Information Security Situational Centers; Communication Operator's Security.
Japan: State of Active Ageing
Authors: Shiraishi Ishi Masaaki
Published: February 2025

In terms of numbers, Japan is now the oldest nation in the world as its 65+ population passed the 20% level in October 2006. Today's senior citizens are expected to successfully fulfil their later years quality-wise. In 2007, members of the baby boomer generation are reaching their retirement age, now mandatory at 60, and businesses are said to be eagerly anticipating the huge new emerging potential of the “silver market”. To cope with functional changes, robotics will play a key role. Toshiba is developing a new robot which can download recipes from the Internet and prepare meals. So, most household equipment in a future home will be closely networked with Information and Communication Technology to enhance quality of life for all. However, looking at reality, we have to face the issue of digital divide. ICT is now part of life, but it is a quite foreign culture for most senior citizens in Japan as many of them have never used – for instance – a typewriter. Two major solutions to this issue are being tested. One consists of class-room lessons organized by local authorities, computer businesses, NGOs, universities and other educational institutes, etc. Another is a certification system. The biggest challenge is to help older people to realize that ICT is a “must” for them to achieve active and healthy ageing. It is obvious that they will face mobility impairment as they age. Impaired mobility limits social contacts and has an important impact on quality of life. ICT can help them to avoid this social isolation.
Some Approaches to Make the Internet Searching Easier
Authors: Machová Kristína  , Vrana Jozef  , Dzbor Martin
Published: February 2025

This paper presents two various approaches to decreasing effort of Internet users during searching the Internet. The focus is on a particular mapping of a web sub-graph of the nearest surroundings of an actual web page for better orientation and on interpretation of web pages content through the explanation of the meaning of concepts with the aid of the Magpie system. Particularly, we tried to generate the lexicon for Magpie from the ontology of a domain.
The Role of Multi-disciplinary B2(B2B) Networks in the “Future Enterprise”
Authors: Mihó k Peter  , Rabe Markus
Published: February 2025

The “ERA Coordination Initiative in the field of Networked Enterprise” is a study, launched by DG INFSO, D4: Networked Enterprise & RFID Unit. One of the major inputs of the study is the interest towards an ERA-NET that would focus on “the Future Enterprise”, a cross-thematic, cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral research area of horizontal nature. In this paper the authors consider the challenges and the role of multi-disciplinary B2(B2B) networks in this research area. Some relations to the “Advanced ICT for the Product Lifecycle” (AITPL) – a broader research area – are presented.
Systematic Approach to Evaluate a B2(B2B) platform
Authors: Palová Dana  , Weinaug Heiko
Published: February 2025

The term B2(B2B) is used by the authors to characterize the seamless integration of business services, offered by logistic and financial service providers, into existing, already IT-supported, manufacturing B2B networks. The European project FLUID-WIN has developed methods, procedures and a platform to support such business-to-network relationships. The paper shortly presents the FLUID-WIN platform itself and the significant potentials for the service providers as well as for all companies involved in the B2B network. The evaluation of the FLUID-WIN outcomes by the end users is an essential step to guarantee the quality and usability. For that purpose both the software and also the business processes influenced by the FLUID-WIN platform are evaluated. Anyway, especially the workflow oriented B2(B2B)-approach and its cross-enterprise dimension induces some specifics. The description of the challenges and experiences of the evaluation shell give an impression of that ambitious task.
The Potential of Liquid Rocket Fuel for Regional Catastrophes and Prevention Solutions
Authors: Spyra Wolfgang
Published: February 2025

The risks of storage of the hazardous chemicals Melanj, Samin and Izonit used as liquid rocket fuel are described. The historical background of conversion, general problems are explained and focused on the storage situation of these missile propellants in Azerbaijan. The toxicology and environmental effects of the stored chemicals are combined with a risk assessment and risk management. The result is a remediation potential developed under the responsibility of NATO and NAMSA.
A Model of Sustainable Management for Forests: Prediction and Prevention of Natural and Man-Made Disasters
Authors: Popa Valentin  , Toma Ovidiu
Published: February 2025

The sustainable management of forests is the key to preventing disasters, both natural and man-made. A healthy community activity fulfils, by means of education and responsibility, the concept of sustainable development.
Communication Problems during an Emergency and Lessons Learned
Authors: Turkman Aysen  , Uysal Ayla
Published: February 2025

Communication during an emergency and preparedness are very important since they can cause fatalities if not properly managed. In many countries, including Turkey, there are many examples of bad communication in emergency situations. In this study, communication problems encountered during an emergency are discussed. The harmful effects that occurred due to the miscommunication are also discussed.
Public Participation and Information through the Licensing Phase of Industrial Facilities to Optimize Disaster Forecasting and Prevention Measures
Authors: Knaul Juliane
Published: February 2025

This paper outlines the key international, EC and German laws that dictate the procedures for informing the public who is adversely affected by industrial development. The paper gives an up-date on the requirements of the relevant regulations for participation by the public and providing information to the public within the license procedure of industrial and mining projects likely to have significant adverse effects on the environment.
Authorities and Organizations with Security Tasks in the Federal Republic of Germany and Their Legal Basis
Authors: Pascaly Peter
Published: February 2025

The Federal Republic of Germany is built of 16 federal states with police authorities of their own in addition to the Federal Police. Besides that the federation has established law providing guidelines to enable the states to enact regulations to install similar auxiliary attachments such as fire departments. As well as these government organizations there are also various and numerous NGOs. The fire brigades are mostly manned with voluntary personnel. Only major cities and big plants have professional fire-fighters. They work together with NGOs in case of a catastrophe under the control of the police authority. Through Fire Protection Demand Plans the needs of the fire brigades of all regions are focused and perform the catastrophe planning and the civil defence.
Cost-benefit in Water Hazard Management
Authors: Fälsch Marcel
Published: February 2025

The protection of water against pollution from hazardous substances of industrial plants is normally implemented by a combination of technical and organisational safety measures within strategic hazard management. The demand for hazard prevention results from several motivations that can be allocated to the public as well as to the plant operators. But rarely is economic benefit the reason why preventive measures are seen as mandatory. This paper focuses on prevention activities to detect kinds of costs and benefits in water hazard management. Furthermore, the first basic approaches are shown for using economic perspectives in the fields of hazard prevention for a practical method of improving efficiency.
Practical Syntactic Processing of Flexible Word Order Languages with Dynamic Syntax
Authors: Tugwell David
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an approach to the automatic syntactic processing of natural language based on the newly-emerging paradigm of Dynamic Syntax, and argues that this approach offers a number of practical advantages for this task. In particular, it is shown that is particularly suited to tackling the problems by languages displaying a relatively free constituent order, which is often the case for the lesser-studied low- and middle-density languages.
Applying the Meaning-Text Theory Model to Text Synthesis with Low- and Middle Density Languages in Mind
Authors: Wanner Leo  , Lareau François
Published: February 2025

The linguistic model as defined in the Meaning Text Theory (MTT) is, first of all, a language production model. This makes MTT especially suitable for language engineering tasks related to synthesis: text generation, summarization, paraphrasing, speech generation, and the like. In this article, we focus on text generation. Large scale text generation requires substantial resources, namely grammars and lexica. While these resources are increasingly compiled for high density languages, for low- and middle density languages often no generation resources are available. The question on how to obtain them in a most efficient way becomes thus imminent. In this article, we address this question for MTT-oriented text generation resources.
Language Resources for Semitic Languages
Authors: Wintner Shuly
Published: February 2025

Language resources are crucial for research and development in theoretical, computational, socio- and psycho-linguistics, and for the construction of natural language processing applications. This paper focuses on Semitic languages, a language family that includes Arabic and Hebrew and has over 300 million speakers. The paper discusses the challenge that Semitic languages pose for computational processing, and surveys the current state of the art, providing references to several existing solutions.
Algorithms and Data Design Issues for Basic NLP Tools
Authors: Tufiş Dan
Published: February 2025

This chapter presents some of the basic language engineering pre-processing steps (tokenization, part-of-speech tagging, lemmatization, and sentence and word alignment). Tagging is among the most important processing steps and its accuracy significantly influences any further processing. Therefore, tagset design, validation and correction of training data and the various techniques for improving the tagging quality are discussed in detail. Since sentence and word alignment are prerequisite operations for exploiting parallel corpora for a multitude of purposes such as machine translation, bilingual lexicography, import annotation etc., these issues are also explored in detail.
Russian Perceptions of Bases and Assessments of Military Balance in the Black Sea Area
Authors: Baev Pavel K.
Published: February 2025

This chapter will first look at the historical legacy of military confrontations in the Black Sea area, primarily as perceived by Russia, and on the emerging new profile of the Black Sea Fleet. It will then deal briefly with the particular case of Moldova, where Russia has only limited strategic interests, and with the role of Russian bases in the protracted confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Turning then to Georgia, this analysis will examine Russia's record of, and capabilities for applying military instruments as means of manipulating violent conflicts. Finally, it will take a measure of Russia's power potential in the North Caucasus and outline possible security developments in the near future.
The Dynamics of Military Basing in the South Caucasus
Authors: Melikyan Gevorg
Published: February 2025

Before 1991, when the three Caucasian republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia declared their independence, the region of the South Caucasus was an interesting place of interaction between these countries at many levels. A dying communist regime, declining Soviet economy, the weakening of the Kremlin's centralised system and new political realities brought new challenges, developments and confrontations. By the late-1980s the region was in the grip of political and ethnic turmoil and economic collapse leading to armed conflicts that resulted in many thousands of deaths, refugees, ruined economies, lack of infrastructure and mistrust. In this context, and in the light of new geo-political developments, the military bases deployed in all three Caucasian countries, which have the fastest growing military budgets in the world, acquired a new significance and played, and continues play, a crucial role in forming the identity of these newly independent states.
The End of Russian Military Bases in Georgia: Social, Political and Security Implications of Withdrawal
Authors: Kakachia Kornely K.
Published: February 2025

Russian military presence, peacekeeping and ethnic conflict resolution is a major challenge for Georgia. By having military bases in Georgia, Russia enjoys political-military influence. Without a legal basis and against Georgia's oftexpressed will Russia has maintained three Soviet-era military bases in Georgia, totalling some 8,000 troops and large arsenals. The withdrawal of these bases, as agreed upon at a 1999 OSCE (Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe) summit in Istanbul, has been under way for several years, but it has never come to an end, partly because of embedded problems and partly because of Russian contraction to withdrawal. This paper discusses the present situation and assesses the position of Georgia and the social, political, and security implications of withdrawal.
Bargaining over Brawdy: Negotiating the American Military Presence in Wales, 1971
Authors: Whitham Charlie
Published: February 2025

USNF Brawdy was a major American undersea listening station set in a remote coastal location in Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom. The base played a vital role in Cold War naval intelligence between 1974 and 1995, but its significance was not its location: the negotiations for its arrival illuminated a complex phase in Anglo-American relations. 1971 was a period of shifting global political and economic alignment that forced adjustments in transatlantic as well as superpower relations. These changes had a direct impact on Anglo-American relations in general and, particularly over USNF Brawdy, their ‘special’ defence relationship.
Azores or Angola? Military Bases and Self-Determination during the Kennedy Administration
Authors: Rodrigues Luís Nuno
Published: February 2025

This paper analyses the impact of the new African policy adopted by the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s in the relations between the United States and Portugal. According to the new principles guiding its policy towards Africa, the United States was to abandon its ambiguous attitude towards European colonialism and actively support the self-determination and independence of colonial peoples in Africa. This new African policy brought great distress to the Portuguese government. Portugal was one of the last European colonial powers in Africa and it had not yet initiated a formal process of decolonisation. The United States, however, had an important military base in the islands of the Azores: Portuguese territory in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The existing agreement was due to expire at the end of 1962, and conversations between the two governments developed throughout that year. In order to renew the agreement, the Portuguese government demanded a radical change in US policies towards Portuguese colonialism.
Verification, Performance Analysis and Controller Synthesis for Real-Time Systems
Authors: Fahrenberg Uli  , Larsen Kim G.  , Thrane Claus R.
Published: February 2025

This note aims at providing a concise and precise Travellers Guide, Phrase Book or Reference Manual to the timed automata modeling formalism introduced by Alur and Dill [7,8]. The note gives comprehensive definitions of timed automata, priced (or weighted) timed automata, and timed games and highlights a number of results on associated decision problems related to model checking, equivalence checking, optimal scheduling, and winning strategies.
Synchronous Techniques for Software and Hardware Embedded Systems
Authors: Berry Gérard
Published: February 2025

We survey the synchronous approach to embedded hardware and software systems, its scientific content, and its use in industry. We discuss the concurrency and determinism constraints of embedded applications, and the way in which they are reconciled by the synchronous concurrency model. We present the main synchronous languages, their semantics, and the industrial tools and flows that support them.
The Tourism, the Diasporas and the Co-Development in the Mediterranean Basin
Authors: Lanquar Robert
Published: February 2025

The tourism is one of the first driving force of the economy in the world today. The Mediterranean Sea represents a third of the world flows: there was, in 2006, more than 842 million arrivals of international tourists in the world, without counting the billion and half of tourists visiting or on holidays in their own country. In the Mediterranean total, the movements of Diasporas would be more than 10 %, that is approximately 35 million persons of the first or the second generation, without counting an ethnic tourism or of inter-regional pilgrimage towards Israel or Saudi Arabia, of the order of 3 in 4 millions.Sources (Springs): extrapolations of the author from the data of the OMT and the institutes of national statistics of Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Turkey.
How Can Binationals Act as a Spur to North African Development?
Authors: Larouz Ahmed
Published: February 2025

Binationals can act on various fronts to contribute to the development of the Maghreb. Ahmed Larouz draws up here the list and suggests concrete measures to implement to gain in efficiency.
Joining the Dots: 2007–2010
Authors: Abbas Mohsin
Published: February 2025

This proposal is for a Grassroots Programme commencing in 2007 and running for three years across Britain, delivered with young Muslim “ambassadors”. We aim to create a network of arts and sports bodies that is linked to a new network of cultural and sporting activists in the Muslim grassroots. By doing this we are giving responsibility and support to British Muslims to become a part of the mainstream in order to create a self-supporting network of cultural and sporting leaders.
Church and State in the Netherlands. The Case of Islam
Authors: De Ruiter Jan Jaap
Published: February 2025

Since the beginning of the new millenium, a heated debate has been taking place in the Netherlands on multi-cultural society. After the political revolution that Pim Fortuyn caused in 2002, people's ideas are changing. Consensus on multi-cultural society as a successful project disappears to make room for rather negative evaluations. Politicians from different ideologies claim that multi-cultural society is a failure. Politicians, opinion leaders and media icons are involved in this loud debate, which cannot be seen loose from the debate on the status of the European Union and the position the Netherlands hold in it. Serious doubts concerning the future of the European Union have led to the rejection of the proposal for the European Constitution on June 1st 2005.
Maritime Transportation Security Against Terrorism and Human Smuggling
Authors: Altunbulak Nihat
Published: February 2025

Maritime transportation is of the utmost importance for world trade yet the treat of possible terrorist attacks against maritime targets are not well addressed. Ships are not protected from potential dangers as they travel through strategic chokepoints that could be used to create havoc on not only the international economy, but the environment and local peoples as well. The paper outlines the importance of maritime transportation, the vulnerabilities it has and the laws and international cooperation that exists in the area of maritime security. In the second half of the paper, another important concern for maritime security, human smuggling, is discussed in detail.
EU Measures on Transportation Security Against Terrorism
Authors: Casale Davide
Published: February 2025

The freedom of movement of individuals and the free circulation of goods in the European Community are fundamental components of the European construction. These freedoms have been endangered by the emergence of the new brand of international terrorism since 11 September 2001, which has jeopardised the safety of transportation all across the continent. To respond to this threat, the European Union has since been developing a vast range of legislative tools to secure its aviation and maritime transportation systems and to enable EU citizens to continue to enjoy their fundamental freedoms. This paper attempts to provide an overview of recent measures adopted by the European institutions to strengthen and co-ordinate air and maritime security in Member States. While describing the appraisable adoption of a wide ranged legislation, some of the main inadequacies emerge, such as concerns with fundamental rights of the individuals and the lack of efficient action in key sectors as critical infrastructures.
Ab Initio Calculations for Circular Dichroism and Synchrotron Radiation Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy of Proteins
Authors: Bulheller Benjamin M.  , Hirst Jonathan D.
Published: February 2025

Circular dichroism (CD) and synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) spectroscopy are widely used techniques for secondary structure determination of proteins. Using the matrix method, protein CD can be calculated from first principles, with an accuracy which is almost quantitative for helical proteins. Thus, CD calculations and experimental data can be used in conjunction to aid structure analysis.
The Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB): A Resource for Data Archiving, Sharing, Validation and Analysis
Authors: Wallace B.A.  , Whitmore Lee  , Janes Robert W.
Published: February 2025

The Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank is a deposition and user-friendly archive of circular dichroism (CD) and synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) spectra, with associated software for validation, analysis and searching. It aims to provide a publicly-accessible resource for structural biology, biotechnology and bioinformatics that enables data sharing and data mining of validated CD data. It contains both spectral data and its associated metadata describing the sample and experimental conditions, with links to sequence and crystallographic data bases. It is located online at: http://pcddb.cryst.bbk.ac.uk. Its functions, contents, structure and features are described in detail in Wallace et al., 2006 [1] and Whitmore et al., 2006 [2].
Reconstruction of Highly Non Linear Sboxes from Linear Codes
Authors: Beelen Peter  , Leander Gregor
Published: February 2025

In this paper we use a well known connection between the nonlinearity of vectorial boolean functions and the minimum distance of certain linear codes to construct functions with higher nonlinearity than known before for specific dimensions.