bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Building Transnational Responses to Transnational Terrorism
Authors: Parvez Tariq
Published: February 2025

Former intelligence director reflects on the need to build up transnational responses to effectively counter transnational security threats. The chapter emphasizes the lessons that can be learned from experiences in sharing information among domestic agencies and draws implications from those for international exchanges.
Knowledge Discovery from Data Streams
Authors: Gama João  , Rodrigues Pedro Pereira  , Spinosa Eduardo  , Carvalho Andre
Published: February 2025

In the last two decades, machine learning research and practice has focused on batch learning, usually with small datasets. Nowadays there are applications in which the data are modeled best not as persistent tables, but rather as transient data streams. Learning from data streams is an increasing research area with challenging applications and contributions from fields like data bases, learning theory, machine learning, and data mining. In this work we identify the main characteristics of stream mining algorithms, and present two illustrative examples of such algorithms.
Development of Fuzzy System Models: Fuzzy Rulebases to Fuzzy Functions
Authors: Burhan Türkşen I.
Published: February 2025

We first review the development of Fuzzy System Models from “Fuzzy Rule bases” proposed by Zadeh (1965, 1975) and applied by Mamdani, et al. (1981) to “Fuzzy Functions” proposed by Türksen (2007-2008) and further developed by Celikyilmaz and Türksen (2007-2009) in a variety of versions. Next, we also review a complementary development of “Fuzzy C-Regression Model”, (FCRM) proposed by Hathaway and Bezdek, (1993) as well as a “Combined FCM, and FCRM” algorithms proposed by Höppner and Klawonn (2003).
Some Fuzzy Logic Based Approaches to Flexible Database Querying and their Use for Discovering Security Related Information
Authors: Kacprzyk Janusz  , Zadrożny Sławomir
Published: February 2025

We are concerned with the browsing of numerical data stored in popular relational databases by querying those data repositories using some non-standard, human consistent querying tools that fall within a broad category of flexible queries. We present queries with linguistic quantifiers and bipolar queries which can help express a real human intention which crucial because information that can suggest a security threat concerns a sophisticated concept and is related to a sophisticated combination of values of attributes that is difficult to express by using traditional querying tools, and also terms in those representations concern mostly issues and aspects which are difficult to precisely specify and quantify, and hence tools of fuzzy logic are employed. We assume a numerical relational database. Some very specific combination of values of attributes can suggest a potentially dangerous situation. To retrieve information the user has to express his or her interest, intention or information needs as a query. Usually, resulting query criteria cannot imply a binary decision of the acceptance/rejection of a row, and a degree is employed. A flexibility is obtained by a fuzzy modeling of linguistic terms and a non-standard aggregation of elementary conditions in a query, in our case a user may be fully satisfied with, e.g., most of them being fulfilled, also with varying importances, which results in queries with linguitsic quantifiers. We also discuss another non-standard approach to flexible querying that involves a specific flexible aggregation scheme assuming two types of conditions within a query, so called bipolar queries involving mandatory (required) and to some extent optional (desired) conditions.
Privacy in Query Logs
Authors: Baeza-Yates Ricardo
Published: February 2025

Query logs are the traces of queries sent to search engines. This chapter covers the new privacy problem inherent in query logs, which was uncovered by the America Online (AOL) incident, in August of 2006. Then we propose several ways to protect the privacy of query logs. Finally, we discuss some related problems in web security.
Terrorist Facebook: Terrorists and Online Social Networking
Authors: Weimann Gabriel
Published: February 2025

The Internet has long been a favorite tool for terrorists. Terrorists use the Net to expand the reach of their propaganda to a global audience, to recruit adherents, to communicate with international supporters and ethnic Diasporas, to solicit donations, and to foster public awareness and sympathy for their causes. About 90% of terrorist activity on the Internet is using social networking tools, be it independent bulletin boards, Paltalk, or Yahoo! eGroups. These forums act as a virtual firewall to safeguard the identities of those who participate, and they offer surfers an easy access to terrorist material, to ask questions, and even to contribute and help out the Cyber jihad. This chapter examines the current use of interactive online communication by terrorists and their supporters.
Making Sense of Unstructured Textual Data
Authors: Roth Dan
Published: February 2025

Recent studies have shown that over 85% of the information organizations deal with is unstructured – the vast majority of which is in text. A multitude of techniques has to be used in order to enable intelligent access to this information and to support transforming it to forms that allow sensible use of the information. While the most commonly used approach is keyword search, popularized by commercial search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, the research community has made a lot of progress moving beyond these techniques. The fundamental issue that all these advances need to address is that of semantics – there is a need to move toward understanding the text at an appropriate level, beyond the word level, in order to support access, knowledge extraction and synthesis. This paper surveys some of our research in these directions, focusing on software tools and products more than techniques; in doing that it addresses several dimensions of text understanding that can facilitate access to and extraction of knowledge from unstructured text, transforming it to forms that are useful to different users in different settings, and integrating it along multiple dimensions and with existing institutional resources.
Discover Shadow Groups from the Dark Web
Authors: Hladky Daniel  , Ehrlich Christian  , Efimenko Irina  , Vorobyov Vyacheslav
Published: February 2025

Due to the lack of multilingual and multimedia extremist collections and advanced analytical methodologies, our empirical understanding of the Internet or dark web is still very limited. Content mining and intelligence inside the Internet becomes more and more a challenge to different bodies from security, financial organizations (e.g. financial intelligence units “FIU”) and law enforcement agencies. Tracking of large digital information from various sources like public Internet, dark web, long tail web or blogs and other social networks creates new challenges to the research community. A first test is to create intelligent crawlers that can identify any link in the web and extract the digital footprint from the web page. Some of the key challenge that we face are in the area of automatic multilingual text analysis, the harmonization of extracted knowledge and the unique identity resolution. Taxonomies and thesauruses do not offer a complete solution for the automatic discovery of hidden relations or newly defined expressions for named entities. In order to understand shadow groups we need to apply advanced technologies from artificial intelligence and computation linguistics. In this paper we will share our experience which we developed from various projects in Europe, Russia and Central Asia. We will discuss how an ontology-driven information extraction approach from large multilingual document collections can help to create an understanding and therefore valuable knowledge. We will further demonstrate how to solve the merging of various ontologies used for different domains and languages using the concept of upper ontology and conclude the discussion by sharing insights on how to create rules for automatic identity resolution for specific named entities.
Toward Real Time Internet Traffic Monitoring
Authors: Porat Benny  , Porat Ely
Published: February 2025

Pattern matching is one of the basic topics in computer science. There were two waves of tens research into pattern matching. Due to new problems and changes in the model as well as its practical application, we must now examine pattern matching problems in the context of new models. Such considerations give rise to many interesting research problems in this area. The main difference between the last two waves of pattern matching research and the new wave is the need to deal with more practical questions. Such problems are encountered in industry applications first, while in the past the researchers had suggested the problems themselves. Two papers [4, 16] could be already tagged as the beginning of the new wave. We discuss the new challenges that must be handled in these exciting future research directions.
Investigation of Web Based Hidden Data
Authors: Margarov Gevorg
Published: February 2025

This article is devoted to problems of Web based data hiding by means of steganography and investigation of the Internet for the purpose of steganographic content detection by means of steganalysis. Rumors in mass media about terrorists using steganography are revealed. The basic idea of steganography, its history and Web based application is considered. Classification and examples of available software are outlined. Main principles of steganalysis and detection of steganographic content are discussed.
Adaptive Evidence Accrual for Context-Sensitive Situation Understanding
Authors: Steinberg Alan N.
Published: February 2025

Context is used in data fusion to provide expectations and to constrain processing. It also is used to infer or refine inferences of desired information (“problem variables”) on the basis of other available information (“context variables”). Context is used in refining data alignment and association as well as in target and situation state estimation. Relevant contexts are often not self-evident, but must be discovered or selected as a means to problem-solving. Therefore, context exploitation involves an integration of data fusion with planning and control functions. Discovering and selecting useful context variables is an abductive data fusion/ management problem that can be characterized in a utility/uncertainty framework. An adaptive evidence-accrual inference method – originally developed for Scene Understanding – is presented, whereby context variables are selected on the basis of (a) their utility in refining explicit problem variables (expressed as mutual information), (b) the probability of evaluating these variables to within a given accuracy, given candidate system actions (data collection, mining or processing), and (c) the cost of such actions.
Decision Support Systems Design for Joint Multi-national Multi-agency Defence and Security Environment
Authors: Bossé Éloi  , Valin Pierre
Published: February 2025

In complex environments like harbour security, where human errors may have tragic consequences, decision support systems are essential to execute complex tasks. This paper discusses critical issues in the design of computer-based support systems that can support operators/decision-makers to better understand the situation, select a course of action, monitor the execution of operations, and evaluate the results. These aids will support decision-makers to cope with uncertainty and disorder and to help people exploit technology at critical times and places in order to ensure success in operations. Because the human cannot be completely replaced or removed from the execution of these tasks, the interaction and coordination between the human and the automated support systems become crucial. In emergency situations, that would necessitate the ability to coordinate multi-agency and multi-national operations, advanced decision support , knowledge exploitation, information fusion and management tools can significantly improve the ability to respond to such emergencies. A technological perspective alone has led system designers to propose solutions by providing operators with Decision Support Systems (DSS). These DSSs should aid the operators to achieve the appropriate Situation Awareness (SA) state for their decision-making activities, and to support the execution of the resulting actions. The lack of knowledge in cognitive engineering has, in the past, jeopardized the design of helpful computer-based aids aimed at complementing and supporting human cognitive tasks. Moreover, this lack of knowledge has, most of the time, created new trust problems in the designed tools. Providing the appropriate level of support thus requires balancing the human factor perspective with that of the system designer, and coordinating the efforts in designing a cognitively fitted system to support decision-makers.
The Provision of Mental Health Services through the Internet: Opportunities, Challenges, and Implications
Authors: Barnett Jeffrey E.
Published: February 2025

As the use of the Internet increases worldwide, mental health services are frequently being accessed on this medium. In addition, more Internet media are being used for establishing and maintaining relationships and as a primary and timely means of communication. Following a review of the history and range of various technologies used for mental health services, the role of the Internet in the provision of these services is described in lights of its clinical, ethical, and legal challenges and implications. Also discussed are the opportunities that arise as a result of the unique features of the Internet such as ease and speed of access, and the application of various Internet technologies to natural disasters and emergency situations. The significant potential of the Internet for enhancing the ability to more rapidly respond to these situations is introduced. Implications for the future of the Internet in the provision of mental health services and for responding to emergencies and natural disasters are addressed.
The Harvard Black Sea Security Program: Encouraging Regional Security based on Cooperation and Integration
Authors: Konoplyov Sergei
Published: February 2025

The Harvard Black Sea Security Program promotes a regional approach to Black Sea security based on cooperation and integration. The Harvard program provides a valuable forum for Black Sea policy makers to meet with counterparts from other countries in a neutral, academic setting. This paper identifies the principal external and internal security factors affecting the Black Sea region, and calls for increasing regional cooperation in order to create a true Black Sea community.
Executive Summary: Prospects for Black Sea Security Cooperation
Authors: Wood W. Duncan
Published: February 2025

This paper summarizes the principal findings and recommendations from the discussions and subsequent contributions to the NATO workshop on Black Sea Security Cooperation. It characterizes the Black Sea as a critical strategic corridor, identifies the principal legal and illegal goods that are channeled through Black Sea transit routes, and summarizes their impact on the region.
Integrated Deterrence – Back to the First Line of Defense
Authors: Gorinov Ivan
Published: February 2025

This paper addresses the security of nuclear and radioactive material in the Black Sea region and highlights specific cases where radioactive sources have gone missing or have been stolen. The paper is divided into three parts: (1) it contrasts the ideal versus the real world situation for nuclear and radiological security; (2) it discusses the need for integrated deterrence using both first and second line defenses and explains the steps needed to improve the security of radioactive sources in the Black Sea region; and (3) it highlights shortfalls in safety and security culture and training. The paper concludes with a call for strengthening the international Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material.
Welcome to Oxford: A Tradition of Conflict Resolution
Authors: Knapp Wilfrid
Published: February 2025

Oxford University was chosen as a suitably neutral academic setting for this NATO workshop on Black Sea Security Cooperation. Here, in typical succinct fashion, Wilfrid Knapp, Emeritus Fellow of St. Catherine's College, welcomes the workshop delegates to Oxford, outlines Oxford's long history of conflict resolution, and points out that former Cold War opponents now share an environment in which we seek security collectively against shared threats.
Towards a Task-Oriented Framework for Smart Spaces
Authors: Vo Chuong C.  , Torabi Torab  , Loke Seng W.
Published: February 2025

In smart spaces such as smart office and workplaces, users are surrounded by hundreds of networked devices and services which often vanish into the background. Therefore, the users are often unaware of possible tasks which they can achieve within a given physical space. Moreover, the user does not want to dig in a long list of individual services and devices for functionalities which are required to accomplish a task at hand. To enable doing more with less in everyday life, we envision a future intelligent computing where the users should not handle directly functionalities provided by individual services and devices but rather high-level tasks, e.g. ‘watch a movie’ or ‘borrow a book’. In this paper, we present our vision of a task computing framework which is to deal with development, deployment, discovery, recommendation, and execution of high-level tasks within smart spaces. We outline a research agenda aiming to realise the proposed framework.
Intelligent Informatics Platform for Precision Agriculture
Authors: Chow Yuan Kai  , Perumal Nagendran
Published: February 2025

This paper presents an Intelligent Informatics Platform, which feed information for decision making in a Precision Agriculture environment. One major challenge faced by agriculture in Malaysia is crop productivity. There is a clear need for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) adoption in the management of crops. ICT can help not only in the monitoring of the crop, but also to provide assistance in the form of decision support for the plantation operators. Various sensors being deployed at the plantation, together with observations from the farmers and rules defined by the domain expert, Intelligent Informatics Platform (I2P) will be able to produce advices for the farm operators on the condition of the crops and also the mitigation plan if the system identified any problems. This is made possible with the use of ontology with OWL and SWRL reasoning.
A Cognitive Glove Sensor Network for Fire Fighters
Authors: Breckenfelder Christof  , Mrugala Damian  , An Chunlei  , Timm-Giel Andreas  , Görg Carmelita  , Herzog Otthein  , Lang Walter
Published: February 2025

This paper describes the design process of a cognitive sensor network using wireless sensor nodes integrated in gloves for fire fighters. The gloves support protection functions for fire fighters during operations like temperature warnings and retreat messages. Warning decisions are processed on the glove based on sensor and communication data whereas haptic feedback to the fire fighter and hazard information are transmitted as reactions. Monitoring the cognitive network of several gloves will be done by the command post. Designing such cognitive networks cannot be done considering the technical part only. Because the glove is part of the protection equipment of the fire fighters, they have to trust it. Therefore adaptivity of both, the fire fighters and the glove sensor network is required. It will be shown, that using a particular design method with iterative process steps, the complexity of such a cognitive design is controllable.
Advanced Spoken Dialogue Management in Adaptive and Trusted Ambient Ecologies
Authors: Minker Wolfgang  , Heinroth Tobias
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we discuss how spoken dialogue systems technology, key factor for user-friendly human-computer interaction, can be deployed in intelligent environments (IEs). An IE is a physical space augmented with computation, communication and digital content. In particular, we show how a spoken dialogue management component may be integrated in Adaptive and Trusted Ambient Ecologies (ATRACO), one realization of next generation intelligent environments. ATRACO is a EU-funded FET/ICT 7th Framework Programme project. We provide an overview on the ATRACO architecture and its interleaving with the spoken dialogue manager, called OwlSpeak. Several conversational phenomena that are explicitly important within the application domain are introduced and provide a detailed look of OwlSpeak's capabilities.
User-Adaptive Multimodal Dialogue System for House Control: Recognizing Who and Where
Authors: Ábalos Nieves  , Espejo Gonzalo  , Podrekar Gregor  , López-Cózar Ramón
Published: February 2025

This paper discusses our plans to improve an already implemented multimodal dialogue system for control of house appliances, called Mayordomo. We think that by means of the planned improvements, the dialogue system will become more user-adaptive and thus the interaction will be more user-friendly. The adaptation will be implemented considering information not taken into account in the initial version of the system, namely user localization and identification. The paper discusses our current study on methods to achieve this kind of information, as well as our plans to employ user profiles.
Chromosome Aberrations in Nuclear Power Plant Workers
Authors: Griciene Birute  , Slapsyte Grazina  , Mierauskiene Jurate
Published: February 2025

Cytogenetic analysis was performed in blood lymphocytes of 60 radiation workers employed in the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. The control group comprised 64 healthy male donors. Chromosome aberration analyses revealed no significant differences between the workers with an external gamma radiation exposure and the controls (1.60 vs. 1.65 CA/100 cells, P=0.85). An increase in the chromosome aberration frequency was observed for the workers with an additional internal and internal plus neutron exposure with significant differences for the total chromosome aberration, chromosome-type aberration and dicentric frequencies. The confounding effects of the internal and neutron exposure on the frequency of chromosome aberrations were determined. The impact of other factors (smoking, age, duration of employment, cumulative dose) was found to be non-significant.
Emergency Response of Toxic Chemicals in Taiwan: The ERT System and Case Studies
Authors: Chen Jenq-Renn
Published: February 2025

In this paper we describe an emergency response system in Taiwan funded by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration that consists of seven emergency response teams (ERT) held by the Chung Yuan Christian University, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, and National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology in the north, central, and south parts of the island, respectively. The ERT system is set up for the effective and efficient response to incidents involving toxic chemicals and hazardous materials, and to reduce the potential impact on the environment from these incidents. During the past three years, more than two hundreds and eighty on-scene response services were provided. The incidents range from a leak in a tank truck to a large-scale fire in a chemical plant. The prompt and effective response has greatly reduced the impact from these incidents.
Molecular and Cellular Biomarkers of Human Individual Sensitivity to Ionizing Radiation
Authors: Osipov Andreyan N.
Published: February 2025

At present time the most rapid and cheap way for ionizing susceptibility estimation is to analyse the human cells sensitivity to test-irradiation ex vivo. The peripheral blood lymphocytes are most often used for these purposes. These cells can be very easily be collected for an analysis and could be a good reflection for whole human body sensitivity to IR due to their high radiosensitivity. Complex investigations can give an appropriate results in the ex vivo test-irradiated cells using a combination such parameters as the free radicals production rate, the activity of key antioxidant enzymes as the superoxide anion dismutase, the DNA damages and their repair, the cytogenetic disturbances, and the cell death frequency. The results of estimation of people with abnormal radiosensitivity among pilots and prostate cancer patients are presented in the paper as an example of practical application of such phenomenological biomarkers in medicine. As criteria for individual radiosensitivity estimation using test-irradiation of blood lymphocytes ex vivo we chose: DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) induction; capacity of DNA SSB repair system; apoptotic cell death frequency. Our results show that criteria used in the study allow to make judgment about the state of blood lymphocytes in individuals. An analysis of cellular response to test-irradiation ex vivo can be recommended for identification of people with an increased sensibility to ionizing irradiation.
Exogenous and Genetic Factors Influence on the DNA Repair Efficiency and Health Hazard
Authors: Cebulska-Wasilewska Antonina
Published: February 2025

Results of our studies, performed on more than 700 subjects, have demonstrated that occupational or environmental exposures to genotoxic agents (i.e. benzene related compounds, pesticides, mercury ions, cigarettes smoke) were associated with elevated levels of cytogenetic damage and were followed by increased risks of cancers. Results have also shown that genotoxic exposures significantly reduced efficiency of DNA repair. Reported results suggested that deficiency in DNA repair could be related to genotoxic exposures and life-styles (diet, vitamins, smoking). Groups of unexposed or exposed to PAHs subjects from Prague, Kosice and Sofia were monitored under the EXPAH EC project in many health, biological and polymorphic features (i.e. CYP1A1, GSTM1, NAT2, EPHX4, XRCC1). In those studies, results from application of the DNA repair competence assay in vitro have shown variability between subjects in responses of lymphocytes to the challenging X-ray dose and in repair efficiencies of the induced DNA damage. Significant decreases of repair efficiencies were observed when the whole investigated group was stratified first according to various genotypes and then to both exposures to PAHs (from cigarettes smoking and occupational). Application of the stochastic approach based on the molecular theory of radiation biology demonstrated that DNA repair competence was dependent on both combined exposure to PAHs and genetic predisposition (polymorphism). Other studies have shown that significant reduction of cellular repair efficacy of the DNA damage was also observed in groups of cancer patients. On the other hand, results of our studies have also shown a strong association between decrease in DNA repair efficiency and increase of aberration frequencies. In a conclusion, our results display that exposure to genotoxic agents, can be hazardous via directly induced cytogenetic damage or via alteration of the DNA repair processes, and can result in increased health risk, particularly in cancer risk. In both pathways, molecular and cytogenetic, results follow the stochastic theory of molecular actions. Results also show that application of the challenging X-rays dose and DNA repair competence assay combined with the detection of damage by SCGE, might be used as the fast, reliable and phenotype related biomarker of individuals vulnerability to the health risk. In epidemiology or pre-clinical studies, it might indicate subjects with elevated risk of health hazard and could also predict the cellular susceptibility to various treatments (environmental, occupational, accidental or therapeutic).
Estimation of Genome Instability by the Comet Assay in the Risk Groups
Authors: Smal Marharyta P.  , Savina Nataliya V.  , Kuzhir Tatyana D.  , Goncharova Roza I.
Published: February 2025

Genomic integrity in patients suspected of Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) and Williams syndrome (WS), in potential heterozygous carriers of NBS-related mutation as well as in the group of motor-car industry workers was studied using the comet assay. Freshly isolated lymphocytes were exposed in vitro to H2O2(100 μM, 1 min, 4°C), and the levels of endogenous DNA damage, H2O2- induced DNA damage and DNA repair kinetics for 3 h period were estimated. Genome instability in NBS patients was shown to be due to delay and decrease in DNA repair efficiency. Some features of genome instability were found in WS patients. The indices studied in the group of workers unexposed to industrial pollutions were in the range of values characteristic of the genome state in healthy representatives of the Belarusian population.
Effects of NAC on Fish Hepatoma Cells Treated with Ionizing Radiation and Mercury Chloride
Authors: Nili Mohammad  , Han Min  , Hyun Kyung Man  , Kim Jin Kyu
Published: February 2025

Organisms are exposed to natural radiations from cosmic or terrestrial origins. Radiation is known to cause cell death, mainly due to its ability to produce reactive oxygen species in cells. The combined action of ionizing radiation with various chemicals is an inevitable feature of modern life. N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) is a well-known sulfhydryl-containing antioxidant whose role in radioprotection has been explored in several studies. The present study was designed not only to assess the synergistic effects between radiation and HgCl2, but also to investigate the protective effects of NAC on cells. Simultaneous treatment of the cells with ionizing radiation and HgCl2resulted in a dramatic increase of cell death, while neither of them showed cytotoxic effects when treated alone. The cytotoxicity of ionizing radiation was enhanced in the presence of HgCl2. An analysis of the extent of synergistic interaction allows to make quantitative estimation of irreversibly damaged cells after the combined exposure. NAC in lower concentrations prevented cell death after irradiation with lower doses (<300 Gy). However it did not prevent cells from radiation-induced death after irradiation with higher doses (300, 500 Gy). The intracellular GSH levels significantly decreased after treatment with radiation alone while the combined treatment of NAC and radiation alleviated the decrease in GSH levels. The investigations give a clue for the establishment of fundamental theories associated with positive efficacy of radiation applications including synergistic or protective effects. This study may be also useful for elucidating the effects of radiation on aquatic organisms.
Effect of Nicotinamide and 1-methylnicotinamide on Radiosensitivity and DNA Repair in Human Lymphocytes
Authors: Panek Agnieszka  , Karabin Aldona  , Gębicki Jerzy  , Cebulska-Wasilewska Antonina
Published: February 2025

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of human lymphocytes pre-treatment with nicotinamide (NA) and 1-methylnicotinamide chloride (MNA+) on radiation-induced DNA damage levels and kinetics of DNA repair. Our results show that MNA+and NA were protecting DNA during the induction of the genotoxic damage. The lowest DNA’s radio-sensitivity in MNA+presence was observed. In G0cells, levels of non-repaired radiation induced DNA damage after fast (0-1h) and slow (1-12h) phase of repair were lower after both pre-treatments (with NA or MNA+) in comparison to irradiated cells without chemical pre-treatment. Moreover, in MNA+pre-treated cells, DNA repair was more efficient than in NA pre-treated lymphocytes (after post-radiated incubation RDT-DNA= 20.4% ± 1.6% for MNA+and RDT-DNA= 30.6% ± 6.1% for NA). On the contrary, in proliferating cells the amount of non-repaired DNA damage after 1h of post irradiation incubation was significantly higher than in cells pre-treated with MNA+, but after 12h incubation no difference on this level was observed.
Monitoring Exposed Populations for Health Risk Assessment Using Biomarkers
Authors: AU Wiliam W.
Published: February 2025

Exposure to environmental toxic substances is a significant cause of human health problems. However, the critical question to ask is, at what concentrations and exposure conditions are these substances hazardous to human health. One approach to address the question is to conduct population monitoring studies using reliable biomarkers that can be used to indicate excessive exposure, identify biological damage and functional deficit, and predict increased risk for health problems. In this review, the application of traditional and functional biomarkers in population monitoring studies will be presented. A major emphasis in the review is to show how to design rigorous study protocols so that results from these studies will be appropriate for use in disease prevention programs.
Modelling of the Induced Mutation Process in Bacterial Cells
Authors: Belov Oleg V.  , Krasavin Evgeny A.  , Parkhomenko Alexander Yu.
Published: February 2025

A mathematical model of the mutation process in bacteria Escherichia coli induced by ultraviolet radiation is developed. Our model is based on the experimental data and describes the main processes of the bacterial SOS response. We have modelled a whole sequence of the events leading to the fixation of the primary DNA lesion as a point mutation. A quantitative analysis of the key ways of the SOS mutagenesis was performed in terms of modern system biology. The dynamic changes of the basic SOS protein concentrations and the process of the translesion synthesis by the modified replication complex are described quantitatively. We have also demonstrated the applicability of the developed model to the description of the mutagenesis in individual genes. For example, an estimation of the mutation frequency in E. coli’s lacI gene is performed. The approaches to modelling of mutagenesis induced by ionizing radiation with different linear energy transfer are developed. The approaches to modelling of mutagenesis in eukaryotic cells are also considered.
Comparison of Sister Chromatid Exchanges (SCE) Levels in Lymphocytes Exposed to Challenging Doses of Radiation from Nonsmoker and Heavy Smoking Persons
Authors: Cebulska-Wasilewska Antonina
Published: February 2025

A global concern about exposure of individuals to an accidental (an acute) or environmental (chronic) hazardous chemicals or physical agents and the possible resultant effects on human health is increasing. Characterization of the dose response process is often done by the use of biomarkers detected in assays predictive of potential toxic outcomes and pathological changes. Human blood lymphocytes cytogenetic analysis is the foundation of the modern biological dosimetry of induced effects, that are stochastically associated with the risk of cancer. It provides an information about chromosomal abnormalities and their relationship with phenotypic effects. The biomarkers that are often referred to biological effects of chemical exposures is based on the measures of sister chromatid exchanges. The aim of the RADIPER NATO ATC was to compare an average SCE levels detected in cells simultaneously irradiated with the challenging dose of X-rays (2Gy). The lymphocytes were collected from two persons; the heavy smoker and nonsmoking subject A significant (p<.001) difference between SCE average values obtained for investigated subjects and no significant difference between average measures performed by various scoring participants were found
Short Term Assays in Human Monitoring of Health Risk from Genotoxic Exposures
Authors: Anderson Diana
Published: February 2025

The WHO/International Programme of Chemical Safety Guidelines for Human Monitoring provide concise guidance on the planning, performance and interpretation of studies to monitor groups or individuals exposed to genotoxic agents. Most human carcinogens are genotoxic but not all genotoxic agents are carcinogenic in humans. Although the main interest in these studies is due to the association of genotoxicity with carcinogenicty, there is also an interest in monitoring human genotoxicity independently of cancer as an endpoint. The most often studied genotoxicity endpoints selected for inclusion in this document are described with the exception of germ cells [1]. It is clear from results of international collaborative studies that no single assay can detect all genotoxic substances. In 1996, WHO/IPCS published its Harmonised Scheme for Mutagenicity testing and this has now been updated [2] and focuses on the identification of mutagens and genotoxic carcinogens. It considers appropriate in vitro and in vivo assays and a strategy for germ cell testing. A combination of tests assesses effects of the three major end-points of genetic damage which are associated with human disease (gene mutation, clastogenicity and aneuploidy). Most assays in bacteria and mammalian cells are used for hazard identification. When choosing in vivo assays, either in somatic or germ cells, expert judgement is required for the appropriate test system and the unnecessary use of animals. Germ cell tests measure damage in germ cells per se and effects in the offspring or potential offspring of exposed animals.
Human Interaction Networks as Complex Systems: The Case for Virtual Fieldwork
Authors: Herrera Dana R.
Published: February 2025

This paper begins by contextualizing human interaction networks as both arbiters and products of specific cultural practices. The various social scientists’ attempts to organize these network relationships into specific models, while notable for attempting to provide a usable framework for analyzing human interaction, share weaknesses that reduce these complex systems into simple and ultimately unreliable predictors of behavior. The analysis is expanded to include virtual world designers whose development of fictional cultures and societies ultimately provides a more useful simulation through which to examine human interaction. What makes these virtual environments a more successful model than others? What lessons can be drawn from their development cycles? How can we utilize these models for the benefit of all researchers involved with complex societal dynamics? Answers to these, and other questions, are combined with a discussion of anthropological research methodology – specifically participant observation and ethnographic fieldwork. This paper suggests that the data gathered from one branch of the social sciences can be more effectively utilized to provide more accurate information for modeling complex systems. A case study of one such enhanced model is discussed as well as recommendations for future directions and areas of interest for the study of human interaction networks.
Modeling of Economic and Social Processes Using Indexing Objective Functions
Authors: Amelkin Sergey
Published: February 2025

Problems of optimal control of economic and social systems can be divided in two levels. The first, internal level is to optimize behavior of agents in terms of their objective functions. The second, external level is to choose the objective functions of the agents. It is necessary to reach certain aims of the system. The resulting objective functions can be found in a class of indexing functions.
Communication and Interpretation as Means Of Interaction in Human Social Systems
Authors: Troitzsch Klaus G.
Published: February 2025

Human social systems are the most complex systems that we can conceive of, as interaction among their members is by messages which have to be interpreted before they can take any effect — and the interpretation of identical messages sent and received in identical situations can have divergent effects as human actors have long-term memories which makes the effects highly path-dependent. The emergent phenomena in human social systems are therefore even more difficult to understand than related phenomena in anthills or chemical systems. The paper introduces models of immergence and second-order emergence to explain the innovation of norms in human groups of moderate size — as opposed to the the emergent phenomena in human crowds which are quite similar to the phenomena that can be observed in physical and animal systems. Modelling the innovation of norms and norm systems makes it necessary that interactions between model agents can be manifold and path-dependent, i.e. that agents have a long memory and deliberation capabilities. This is shown with an example from modelling criminal or terrorist behaviour.
On the Theory of Human Decisions
Authors: Grandpierre Attila  , Martinás Katalin  , Medve Noémi
Published: February 2025

In this paper we investigate the ethical implications of the Greatest Happiness Principle (GHP) in a complex system approach. The main question in political philosophy is: What do we need to do in order to live together well? In the complex approach, based on the wealth increase law, we take into account (i) the parameters, which may change by human decisions, as well as (ii) the long-term expectations, which motivate the decisions themselves. Factors (i) are material goods, money, parameters of human physiology (e.g. health), psychology (knowledge) and sociology (e.g. friends, power). These quantities are measurable in principle, i.e. they can be mapped onto the set of real numbers. The changes refer to exchanges between two agents or with nature, and there is production/consumption internal to agents. It is a hot topic whether there is a need for culture politics, or the market forces should govern culture too. Our results show that culture, knowledge and social relations follow different ethics from the one governing the exchange of the material goods, and there is no real market force at work for cultural resources. In particular, the Greatest Happiness Principle for the society provides rules and ethical demands for such transfers.
Finite Groups, Designs and Codes
Authors: Moori J.
Published: February 2025

We will discuss two methods for constructing codes and designs from finite groups (mostly simple finite groups). This is a survey of the collaborative work by the author with J D Key and B Rorigues.
Quantum jump codes and related combinatorial designs
Authors: Jimbo Masakazu  , Shiromoto Keisuke
Published: February 2025

Quantum jump codes were introduced by Alber et al. (2001). Quantum jump codes have a close connection with combinatorial designs called t-SEED (t-spontaneaus emission error design). In this paper, we give a brief survey of quantum jump codes together with some new results. Firstly, fundamental properties of a t-error correcting quantum jump code are described. Secondly, a few examples of jump codes are given and an upper bound on the dimension of a jump code with a fixed length and given error correcting ability is derived. A relation between a t-SEED and a jump code is discussed and various constructions of t-SEEDs are given.
Multi-structured designs and their applications
Authors: Fuji-Hara Ryoh  , Miao Ying
Published: February 2025

In this paper, we give a survey of multi-structured designs and their various applications. Multi-structured designs are block designs with additional structure imposed on the blocks. Combinatorial conditions of the further block structure depend on applications. Examples of multi-structured designs are nested designs, row-column designs, splitting design, etc. Their constructions have been independently studied for a long time and often use similar techniques. Cyclic multi-structured designs are related to various types of sequences which have many applications to modern communications. The paper consists of three parts. The first part deals with classical multi-structured designs which are used in experimental designs and authentication systems. The second part reviews several applications to optical and wireless communications which use cyclic multi-structured designs. Finally, in the third part, we discuss algebraic and geometric construction methods which are commonly used for many types of multi-structured designs.
Recent results on families of symmetric designs and non-embeddable quasi-residual designs
Authors: Shrikhande Mohan S.  , Alraqad Tariq A.
Published: February 2025

The first infinite families of symmetric designs were obtained from finite projective geometries, Hadamard matrices, and difference sets. Some of these symmetric designs have applications to coding theory, cryptography, and authentication schemes. Recently, new ideas have been introduced in constructing designs using balanced generalized weighing matrices and regular Hadamard matrices. These have led to several new families of symmetric designs and related configurations such as quasi-residual designs. The first part of this paper aims to survey these new developments as well as recent results about families of symmetric designs. The second part of the paper concerns quasi-residual designs and their non-embeddability.
Applications of finite geometry in coding theory and cryptography
Authors: Klein A.  , Storme L.
Published: February 2025

We present in this article the basic properties of projective geometry, coding theory, and cryptography, and show how finite geometry can contribute to coding theory and cryptography. In this way, we show links between three research areas, and in particular, show that finite geometry is not only interesting from a pure mathematical point of view, but also of interest for applications. We concentrate on introducing the basic concepts of these three research areas and give standard references for all these three research areas. We also mention particular results involving ideas from finite geometry, and particular results in cryptography involving ideas from coding theory.
The Role of NGOs in Turkey-Armenia Rapprochement
Authors: Mkrtchyan Tigran
Published: February 2025

The article discusses the nature of Armenian-Turkish Track Two Diplomacy efforts and their influence on the normalization in the relations between Armenia and Turkey. The key question posed and address is whether the NGOs (or general bilateral civil initiatives) played a pivotal role in the rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey. For that purpose the analysts have studied all the 50 initiatives implemented in the last decade or so. The analysis proves that civil society initiatives and government actions have been mutually strengthening factors in the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement process. Armenian-Turkish NGO activities have gained much attention and coverage only when there was an explicit or even implicit interest for political normalization of relations by the governments of Armenia and Turkey. It would be wrong to claim that NGOs played pivotal role in the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement efforts, but it is also undeniable that those initiatives have supplemented the political rapprochement.