bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
No reference image quality assessment using gabor convolutional neural networks
Authors: Vadlamudi Jyothisri , Khan Md Sameeulla 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
With the emergence of image capturing devices and increase in usage of internet, massive volume of network data was occupied with digital images. For efficient data transmission, the image may undergo several processing units in from the point it captures to the display/storage device. It may result in loss of the perceptual image quality. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the image quality to measure the quality of experience. It was found that the convolutional neural networks serve as potential tool for effective feature extraction in many image processing applications. Particularly, with the first layer as Gabor filters, the robustness of the network can be reinforced with learnable Gabor parameters. This paper proposes Gabor Convolutional Neural Network method for No-Reference Image Quality Assessment. Their well-defined spatial structured filters are promising in extracting quality features from the local patches and maps them to perceptual quality scores. Our proposed architecture was tested over synthetic and authentic databases such as LIVE, TID2013, CSIQ, LIVE-MD, MDID2016, LIVE Wild and KoNiQ-10k. The proposed approach was also tested on the Waterloo 3D phase-II database, which contains high-resolution images of both the eyes individually with their respective DMOS scores. The proposed approach out performs over LIVE-MD and LIVE Wild and competes with existing algorithm over other databases.
A novel AgNFs/MOF/CFC substrate-based flexible SERS sensor for high-sensitive detection of dye molecules
Authors: Deng Wenlong , Mei Linyu , Niu Yue , Zhang Zicheng , Shao Yunpeng 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Metal–organic framework (MOF) materials have been increasingly used owing to their high porosity, chemical stability, and semiconducting properties. With the help of MOF materials, MOF-based SERS substrates can exhibit high sensitivity. Herein, we proposed a flower-like Ag nanoparticles (AgNFs)/metal–organic framework (MOF)/ carbon fiber cloth (CFC) substrate-based surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor for the high-sensitive detection of dye molecules. MOF is used as a signal amplifier to accelerate the approach of dye molecules near AgNFs on the MOF surface and anchor AgNFs on the substrate surface. The detection occurred on the AgNFs/MOF/CFC SERS substrate, providing an enhancement factor (EF) of 5.53 × 107. Benefitting from the signal amplification function of AgNFs/MOF/CFC and the superiority of SERS, this sensor represented high sensitivity performance and a wide detection range. Importantly, the combination of Co elements with silver in the AgNFs/MOF/CFC composite substrate enhances the resistance of Ag to oxidation by atmospheric moisture resulting in excellent stability (the substrate maintained good SERS activity after 45 days of exposure to air) of the SERS substrate. The basic performance of the substrate was evaluated using rhodamine 6 G (R6G). (Detection limit reached 10−12 M) The detection limit of TC was 0.1 ppm. This method provides a potential and cost-effective strategy to develop advanced SERS sensing devices to effectively monitor pollutants in environmental waters.
Dynamic ant colony optimization algorithm for parameter estimation of PEM fuel cell
Authors: Ghosh Sankhadeep , Routh Avijit , Hembrem Pintu , Rahaman Mehabub , Ghosh Avijit 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) provide a reliable, pollution-free, sustainable, and stable power generating alternative to non-renewable resources, and they do not self-discharge. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) necessitate correct parameter estimates for effective investigation, modelling and designing effective fuel cells, highlighting the importance of exact modelling for successful use in many industries. The present research aims to determine the approximate parameters estimation of PEMFC using a modified algorithm derived from the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) meta-heuristic algorithm. In order to provide justification for the algorithm, it is initially benchmarked against 10 functions. The study compares the outcomes of PEMFC parameter estimation through the Dynamic Ant Colony Optimisation (DACO) algorithm including some additional metaheuristic algorithms such as Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO), Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm, and an algorithm known as Grey Wolf Optimisation - Cuckoo Search (GWOCS) which is hybrid in nature. The suggested algorithm’s performance evaluation is based on minimising the Square Error (SSE). The modified proposed optimization algorithm exhibits superior performance compared to other alternative meta-heuristic algorithms due to its minimal SSE value. The effectiveness and efficiency of the modified method based on the Ballard Mark V datasheet were evaluated using statistical error analysis and non-parametric testing. The convergence curves of DACO demonstrate a faster convergence compared to the other optimization algorithms.
Missed Callings: The Road Not Taken
Authors: Miller-McLemore Bonnie J 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
This chapter explores the pang of living forward with vocational decisions about which one can never be entirely sure. No one enters adulthood without facing life-changing choices and making decisions that matter not just for today or tomorrow but for the rest of one’s life. Nor without some regret. This kind of aching hindsight, so fresh and vivid for young adults, arises again and again throughout life when trying to follow callings. Drawing on Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” and studies of bereavement, liminality, and family systems, this chapter probes the sorrows and looks for ways to navigate the losses as an essential step in grappling with the hardships of callings often ignored by popular uses of the term.
Fractured Callings: I Do Not Do the Good I Want
Authors: Miller-McLemore Bonnie J 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
This chapter considers one of the more difficult “undersides” of callings—when they fall apart and people are partly to blame. Fractured callings are morally ambiguous matters whose causes are multiple and whose consequences are ambiguous. Talking about human culpability is a delicate matter, touching on questions of evil, sin, and human responsibility that people have debated for centuries. The chapter searches for ways to broach the common experience of brokenness, moving from fractured callings in work to the even more painful fractures in callings to love. It concludes by exploring how people have mended the fissures, touching on subjects such as truth-telling, humility, confession, forgiveness, self-forgiveness, affirmation, the need to refrain from judgment, and even the complicated good that can emerge out of failure.
Introduction
Authors: Sbisà Marina 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis introduction situates John L. Austin within Ordinary Language Philosophy as one of its main representatives, entertaining a personal view of how philosophy relates to ordinary language, and reports on his philosophical and cultural formation. It considers what receptions Austin’s work has received, pointing out that it survived various sorts of criticism and misunderstanding and contributed to various trends of studies within and outside philosophy, among which the interdisciplinary field of pragmatics. It explains that this volume is not about Austin’s temperament, behaviour in philosophical discussion, and teaching but about the contents, implications, and significance of his writings. It comments on Austin’s style of writing, explaining why he is a more difficult author than one would think at first sight.
The Discovery of Illocution
Authors: Sbisà Marina 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis chapter argues that, while Austin is renowned for putting forward the notion of performative utterance, his real discovery is that of illocution. It provides an account of Austin’s view of performative utterances and argues (on the basis of manuscript notes of his) that he passed from the characterization of performative utterances to the outline of speech act theory in order to avoid the notion of performative utterance being used to reduce the meaning of philosophically relevant words to their performative function. It claims that How to Do Things with Words is structured as a proof by contradiction of the claim that all of our utterances perform actions of the same kind as those performed by performative utterances (i.e., illocutionary acts). Finally, it provides an account of Austin’s conception of illocution, from his invention of that word to the rules for the illocutionary act’s felicity, the role of the securing of uptake, and the bringing about of an illocutionary effect. It also clarifies that for Austin, even though the assessment of an utterance as felicitous or infelicitous is prior to its assessment as true or false (or otherwise correct or incorrect with respect to the world), the distinction of felicity vs truth holds.
Context
Authors: Sbisà Marina 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis chapter deals with the role of context in Austin’s philosophy of language. It examines Austin’s discussion of some examples of assertion which show how the context of an assertive utterance affects its truth–falsity assessment. It compares Austin’s view of the role of context as regards the significance and the assessment of utterances with semantic contextualism and truth-relativism and proposes to call Austin’s stance ‘non-propositional contextualism’. It clarifies the relationship between Austin’s views on truth and meaning and the mainstream framework of truth-conditional semantics. It concludes that Austin focuses on the dynamics of speech acts and on sense, reference, and truth–falsity assessments as belonging to it but is nevertheless to be seen as closer to Frege and Grice, as a heretic member of that lineage, than to James, Derrida, or Nietzsche.
Philosophy and the Ordinary
Authors: Sbisà Marina 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThis chapter explores the conception of the Ordinary that can be attributed to Austin and so why and in what sense the language upon which Austin’s method focuses must be ordinary. It argues that using language ordinarily does not necessarily coincide with expressing common-sense beliefs and that philosophy conducted according to the Linguistic Turn is not always sensitive to ordinariness. It characterizes ordinariness in three ways: as the by-default assumption that there are other people with whom we may interact, which lies at the foundations of the social bond; as the by-default assumption that linguistic exchanges are conducted in the framework of conversational cooperation, which enables utterances to convey implicit meaning; and eventually, as one way to fulfil the fidelity requirement mandating consistency between philosophical claims and actual behaviour in ordinary life. It further comments on Austin’s conception of philosophy examining his remarks about the place of philosophy among human cognitive activities and particularly, its relation with science.
South Africa
Authors: Krotoszynski, Jr. Ronald J 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
South African judges, using a process of common law reasoning, seek to reconcile the 1996 Constitution’s mandate for the respect of dignity, equality, and human freedom, which constitute South Africa’s apex constitutional rights, as well as its foundational constitutional values, with a free and open marketplace of political ideas. Despite clear textual signals that seem to elevate these apex rights over freedom of expression, the Constitutional Court of South Africa has embarked on a program of harmonization that seeks to integrate speech and expressive freedom more generally with equality, dignity, and freedom. It is not possible to conduct free and fair elections without the possibility of an open and wide-ranging debate about the policies that the government should pursue (and those it should abjure). A government empowered to censor core political speech, even if doing so in the name of equality and dignity, presents an existential risk to the process of democratic deliberation. South African judges, cognizant of South Africa’s fraught history with official government censorship during the apartheid era, deploy a process of common law constitutionalism to ensure that citizens remain free to speak their version of truth to power. Were political speech in South Africa subject to blanket government censorship whenever the elected branches deem such censorship necessary to promote dignity, equality, and human freedom, the government’s power to distort the operation of the marketplace of political ideas would fatally undermine the use of elections as a means of conferring legitimacy on the government.
Australia
Authors: Krotoszynski, Jr. Ronald J 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Australia provides a compelling example of how the presence or absence of constitutional text need not prefigure whether the domestic courts will exercise a power of judicial review to safeguard expressive freedom. Even though Australia lacks a constitutional free speech guarantee, in 1992, Australia’s highest judicial tribunal and the institutional equivalent of the Supreme Court of the United States, the High Court of Australia (HCA) has recognized an “implied freedom” of political and governmental communication as a structural necessity in a polity that practices democratic self-government. This jurisprudential innovation demonstrates with convincing clarity that the absence of a constitutional text safeguarding the freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition, and association need not be an insurmountable obstacle to the exercise of judicial review to protect these expressive freedoms. Going forward, the HCA must decide if it actually means what is has been saying since handing down its landmark decision in ATV, in 1992, about the necessary relationship between the freedom of speech (and presumably other expressive freedoms) and the practice of democratic self-government. If expressive freedoms are, in fact, essential to maintaining free and fair elections, then Australia’s implied freedom of political and governmental communication should be expanded and extended to reach any and all communications that help facilitate informed and engaged citizenship by voters and expressly reach any and all forms of expressive activity (including speech, but also including assembly, association, petition, and a free press) that voters seek to utilize. Even if the freedom of speech in Australia is not a personal right, as it is in the United States, Israel, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, a commitment to democracy and democratic discourse requires judicial recognition and protection of all modalities of expressive freedom.
Israel
Authors: Krotoszynski, Jr. Ronald J 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
Although Israel does not have a formal, comprehensive, and entrenched written constitution, it nevertheless recognizes and respects fundamental human rights, notably including freedom of expression and expressive freedom more generally. The constitutional commitment to human rights in general, and to the freedom of speech in particular, constitute cornerstone features of Israel’s existing constitutional order. These commitments do not disrupt or impede democratic self-government and democracy in Israel; on the contrary, they enable and legitimate Israel’s experiment in democratic self-governance. Despite the absence of any written text, constitutional or statutory, that directly conveys legal protection on speech and other expressive freedoms, or any specific authorization of judicial review to safeguard it, residents of Israel have enjoyed these fundamental rights since 1953 and the Supreme Court of Israel’s landmark decision in Kol Ha’am. Using a process of common law constitutionalism, over seven decades, Justices of the Supreme Court of Israel have built a thoughtful, nuanced, and largely successful jurisprudential bulwark that protects freedom of expression from efforts at government censorship—and that vindicates the citizenry’s long-standing expectation that they are free to speak their version of truth of power. Indeed, as events associated with the Netanyahu government’s proposed “judicial reforms” demonstrate with convincing clarity, public protest and civic engagement are very much alive and well in contemporary Israel, and this is, in substantial measure, the direct result of the judges’ sustained efforts to use a common law process to define and protect expressive freedom in Israel.
Conclusion
Authors: Krotoszynski, Jr. Ronald J 
Published: June 2024

Abstract
The scope and meaning of expressive freedom within a particular legal system will, like Proteus, change shape and form, evolving over time, as the felt necessities of democratic self-government require. Judges, across domestic legal systems, will shape and reshape the doctrines associated with the protection of expressive freedom as necessary to enable them to craft judicial opinions that they believe will be credible—reasonably persuasive—to the general political community. In the context of expressive freedom, judges undertake this work as the guardians of democracy and the democratic process. This task is, and probably must be, an exercise in common law judging. At the end of the day, some constitutional rights cannot be effectively circumscribed by textual limitations; these rights can and will change their form and shape over time. The question for those drafting constitutional language then becomes identifying which rights can be more successfully codified—and which rights, because of their deeply seated sociolegal salience, are relatively impervious to efforts to limit or constrain them through particular verbal formulae. Efforts to cabin expressive freedom through constitutional or statutory text—through inclusion but also through exclusion—will inevitably and invariably fail because judges, not legislators, are its principal guardians. The First Amendment, and its foreign cousins as well, are protean—and our understanding of how constitutions work would be significantly improved if we invested more time and energy in trying to understand precisely why this is so.
Ethnicity and Ideology: A Theory
Authors: Rovny Jan 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThe chapter introduces the prevailing notion that ethnicity poses challenges to stable democratic politics, leads to particularistic extremism, conflict, and deviates from policy-based, ideological politics. It examines the existing literature on ethnic politics, demonstrating the general view of ethnicity as a source of political particularism that corrupts the democratic process. The chapter develops a theory that challenges this perception by proposing a theoretical framework of “ethnic liberalism.” It argues that ethnic minorities primarily aim to secure their survival as distinct groups. Under specific conditions, these minorities seek to protect individual and collective rights, restrain majority nationalism, and promote democratic outcomes through liberal constitutional arrangements. Ethnic minority representatives collaborate with favorable political forces to achieve these goals, framing domestic political competition, and shaping democratic institutions. Yet, ethnic liberalism is circumstantial; it can be undermined under certain conditions, such as in the context of potential secession, religious identification, or influence of illiberal ethnic kin states. The chapter outlines the conditions favoring ethnic liberalism and those that might undermine it, elucidating the impact of ethnic minority status on political preferences, party systems, and democracy in general.
Eastern Europe: Politics and Ethnicity
Authors: Rovny Jan 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThe chapter introduces the literature on eastern European politics which sees the region as ideologically amorphous and democratically fragile, which it attributes to the legacies of communism and ethnic heterogeneity. Contrary to this understanding, the chapter argues for important structural foundations of eastern European politics, significantly influenced by ethnic minorities. It asserts that ethnic interests, mobilized during the democratic transition of the 1990s, have fundamentally shaped the region’s ideological preferences and the structure of political competition. This initial mobilization continues to influence the political landscape, even as new issues, such as immigration and European integration, emerge. The chapter begins by discussing the ethnic composition of eastern European countries, then delves into the scholarly focus on the communist experience and its impact on society and politics. It emphasizes the pivotal role of ethnic politics in defining the contours of eastern European political space, particularly through associations between ethnic minority and other political representatives. Finally, the chapter examines the significance of politically mobilized ethnic minorities for democratic development and democratic backsliding.
Conclusion
Authors: Rovny Jan 
Published: June 2024

AbstractThe concluding chapter summarizes the arguments and findings of the book. It underscores how ethnic minority status shapes political preferences and how its mobilization and representation influence the trajectories of liberal democracies. It restates how mobilized ethnic minorities mold constitutional liberal poles of politics, leading organized ethnic minorities, faced with the constant exposure to the dominance of the majority, to seek constitutional liberalism in order to ensure group survival and mitigate the potential for majority abuse. The chapter restates how eastern Europe is a useful testing ground to demonstrate how ethnicity informs programmatic political competition, shapes party systems, and reinforces liberal democracy. The chapter reemphasizes how ethnic liberalism, while contingent on specific conditions and circumstances, fortifies the liberal pole of politics, structures party competition, and invigorates democratic resilience. The chapter highlights how this argument advances knowledge about the role of ethnicity in politics, about the social bases of political competition in eastern Europe, as well as about the role of identity as a source of programmatic political preferences and party competition. To assess how the argument of ethnic liberalism might travel beyond eastern Europe, the chapter provides three vignettes, demonstrating some aspect of ethnic liberalism among minorities in France, the United States, and Malaysia.