ethicalabs/Research-Intent-Collab huggingface dataset:
State-Event-Fault-Trees – A Safety Analysis Model for Software Controlled Systems

Safety models for software-controlled systems should be intuitive, compositional and have the expressive power to model both software and hardware behaviour. Moreover, they should provide quantitative results for failure or hazard probabilities. Fault Trees are an accepted and intuitive model for safety analysis, but they are incapable of expressing state dependencies or temporal order of events. We propose to enrich Fault Trees with State/Event semantics. We use a graphical notation that is similar to Statecharts. Our model subsumes deterministic state machines that are suited to describe software behaviour and Markov Chains that model probabilistic failures. We allow exponentially distributed probabilistic events, deterministic delays and triggered events. The model is compositional and joins components by ports. Quantitative evaluation is achieved by translating the component models to Deterministic and Stochastic Petri Nets (DSPNs) and using an existing tool for analysis. We introduce the model and the analysis procedure and provide a small case study of a fire alarm system, completed by an outlook on our tool project ESSaRel.
COVID-19 and Workplace and Occupational Health and Safety

AbstractChapter 10, ‘COVID-19 and Workplace and Occupational Health and Safety’, engages with issues of workplace safety, including occupational health and safety. It examines changes that have taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic to the operation of workplaces, including the adoption of working from home arrangements for many workers and hybrid arrangements for others. The chapter discusses how this experience has prompted questioning of occupational health and safety obligations for employers and employees in the context of a pandemic, as well as during the period when risks remain in spite of high levels of vaccination in some countries. This chapter reflects upon the measures that have been taken to protect particular categories of workers, including healthcare workers, but also the obligations imposed on other categories of workers who have significant contact with the public for the protection of both the public and the workers. The chapter also explores issues raised in many countries about the mandatory vaccination of workers and the extent to which employers can require such preconditions to participation in the workplace.
Judicial Decisions on Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights: An Appraisal of Its Effect

This paper highlights the impact of selected judicial decisions on the claims to land rights by the indigenous peoples in Malaysia. A judicial impact study is important because court decisions can alter the status of law that controls social and political behaviour and/or elicit responses from other political actors, thus influencing policy and political outcomes. The Malaysian Courts have played a significant role in developing law that acknowledges indigenous customary rights in Malaysia. For example, the case of Nor Anak Nyawai and Others v Borneo Pulp Plantation Sdn Bhd [2001] 6 MLJ 241 not only clarified the legal position of native customary rights but also had a profound impact in the Malaysian legal system. The judgment had aided in the reoccupation of the Iban’s territories. Sagong bin Tasi &amp; Ors v. Kerajaan Negeri Selangor [2002] 2 CLJ 591 recognised that indigenous customary land rights were of equal legal status to full ownership or title to the land in Peninsular Malaysia. By applying doctrinal legal research, the three cases selected are, first, the landmark case of Director of Forest, Sarawak &amp; Anor v. TR Sandah Tabau &amp; Ors and Other Appeals [2017] 2 MLRA 91 which led to the amendment of the Sarawak Land Code 1958. The second and third cases are claims by the Orang Asli in Pos Dakoh and Pos Belatim against the government of Kelantan and in which consent judgments were entered. This study would be significant in emphasizing the impact of judicial decisions and the need for courts to ensure that the decision is carried out as well. Regardless of the courts’ findings, the government’s implementation of such decisions is still insufficient. Nonetheless, certain indigenous groups have re-occupied their territory without the state’s consent. As a result, the court decisions have provided people with a significant motivation to physically reclaim their land.
Breast cancer screening among women in Namibia: explaining the effect of health insurance coverage and access to information on screening behaviours

Objectives:                     Breast cancer contributes substantially to morbidity and mortality in Namibia as is the case in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, there is a dearth of nationally representative studies that examine the odds of screening for breast cancer in Namibia and SSA at large. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the determinants of breast cancer screening guided by the Health Belief Model.                                                           Methods:                     We applied hierarchical binary logit regression models to explore the determinants of breast cancer screening using the 2013 Namibia Demography and Health Survey (NDHS). We accounted for the effect of unobserved heterogeneity that may affect breast cancer, testing behaviours among women cluster level. The NDHS is a nationally representative dataset that has recently started to collect information on cancer screening.                                                           Results:                     The results show that women who have health insurance coverage (odds ratio (OR) = 1.62, p ≤ 0.01), maintain contact with health professionals (OR = 1.47, p = 0.01), and who have secondary (OR = 1.38, p = 0.01) and higher (OR = 1.77, p ≤ 0.01) education were more likely to be screened for breast cancer. Factors that influence women’s perception of their susceptibility to breast cancer such as birthing experience, age, region and place of residence were associated with screening in this context.                                                           Conclusions:                     Overall, the health belief model predicted women’s testing behaviours and also revealed the absence of relevant risk factors in the NDHS data that might influence screening. Overall, our results show that strategies for early diagnosis of breast cancer should be given major priority by cancer control boards as well as ministries of health in SSA. These strategies should centre on early screening and may involve reducing or eliminating barriers to health care, access to relevant health information and encouraging breast self-examination.
Developing sustainable tourism through co-evolution of tourism firms and destinations: hospitality models, determinants and key management tools

Sustainable tourism has become a topic increasingly addressed by the multidisciplinary research and practice about tourism management since the late 1980s. The debate is lively around the problems of interpreting actors and processes driving sustainable tourism paths within and across destinations. This volume addresses the topic both through a co-evolutionary framework that allows to look at the dynamic of the tourism firms-destinations relationship, and through empirical evidences that shed light on the role of tourism firms as, at the same time, subject and object of evolutionary change. The volume can be useful for academics and students, but also for decision makers and policy makers, to appropriately address and try to solve the multiple problems associated to sustainable tourism, improving its impact.
Implementing climate change projections in System Dynamics models

Desertification is the degradation of drylands, which occupy an increasing proportion of the Earth's surface due to global warming. It is currently the most extensive biome on Earth, occupying 45% and one out of every three inhabitants of the planet live in them. One of the most effective ways to face desertification, as Land Degradation Neutrality points out, is prevention. For this purpose, simulation models are very useful tools. Specifically, System Dynamics models are particularly effective, since they allow bringing together the biophysical and socioeconomic variables involved in the formation of the problem. These integrative models, coupled with other tools such as sensitivity analyses, are used to generate desertification early warning indicators. The objective of this programming routine is to implement climate change scenarios in these simulation models. The script presented here was used to evaluate the sensitivity of dehesa rangelands productivity to the increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts due to climate change.•Integrated simulation models are useful tools to understand complex socioecosystems.•Land-use changes foster the alteration of key hydro-bio-geochemical processes.•By means of automated import processes and data analysis programming, it is possible to implement desertification early warning systems.
Central bank digital currencies and financial stability

Most Central Banks in the world are currently considering - or at least studying - the launch of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). For instance, on 14 July 2021 the European Central Bank decided to launch a two-year investigation phase of a possible Digital Euro [European Central Bank (2021)]. Those announcements have raised many expectations and also some concerns. There is a fear that once the general public has easy access to the Central Bank balance sheet through electronic means (in addition to physical banknotes), competition will increase on the deposit taking activities of banks. This would compromise their funding, reduce their profitability and destabilise their business models. The perspective of frequent and ample bank runs would be very bad for financial stability. These are legitimate concerns, especially in the euro area, where banks and bank credit take a major role in financial intermediation. However, there is another side to the issue. Central Bank money - and easy access to it - are crucial to financial stability. Contemporary monetary systems are based on a close complementarity between private and public money. CBDCs are necessary to preserve that equilibrium in a rapidly transforming digital economy
&iquest;Políticas de salud y salud politizada? Un análisis de las políticas de salud sexual y reproductiva en Perú desde la perspectiva de la ética médica, calidad de atención y derechos humanos Health policies and politicized health? An analysis of sexual and reproductive health policies in Peru from the perspective of medical ethics, quality of care, and human rights

La ética médica es considerada entre los profesionales de salud como la disciplina que proporciona las bases para brindar una atención adecuada a los pacientes. En los últimos años, los conceptos de calidad de atención y derechos humanos - así como sus diversos discursos acompañantes - se han sumado al concepto de ética médica entre los paradigmas a tener en cuenta en la atención de las personas, tanto a nivel individual, así como a nivel de políticas de salud. El presente trabajo busca analizar tales paradigmas, utilizando como estudio de caso las políticas de salud sexual y reproductiva que se dieron en Perú en los últimos 10 años.Health professionals view medical ethics as a discipline that provides the basis for more adequate patient care. In recent years the concepts of quality of care and human rights - with their attending discourses - have joined the concept of medical ethics among the paradigms to consider in care for humans both at the individual and health policy levels. The current study seeks to analyze such paradigms, based on a case study of sexual and reproductive health policies in Peru in the last 10 years.
Occupational Health and Safety in Workplace: A Theoretical Approach

This paper focuses on occupational health and safety of employees in the workplace and the laws so implemented. Occupational health and Safety is an integrated field that is concerned with the health, safety, and welfare of workers in all jobs. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was found in 1970 as a result of the realization that all employees should have a reasonable expectation of safety at work.  Occupational safety and health have grown to be a top concern for stakeholders when it comes to caring for the human resources because of the huge number of accidents and exposures that take place in all types of workplaces and the effects that these have on workers' organizations, society, and nations. This article addresses various policies that were implemented to guide the stakeholders. Further, this paper examines the development in the area of occupational health and safety in India. It also brings up light on the facilities that is brought up in the field of occupational health like the occupational hygiene, occupational medicine, etc. Finally the article ends by recommending to enhance the occupational risks for immigrants. Since Occupational health and safety are less concerning and not being discussed much, it has to be given attention.
Investigating Serious Adverse Drug Reactions in Patients Receiving Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents: A Root Cause Analysis Using the “ANTICIPATE” Framework

Background:             Unexpected serious adverse drug reactions (sADRs) affecting patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who received erythropoiesis-stimulating agents were identified by study co-authors. These included pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) after administration of the Eprex formulation of epoetin or the epoetin biosimilar HX575 and fatal anaphylaxis associated with peginesatide, an erythropoietin receptor agonist. We developed and applied a structured framework to describe these sADRs, including root cause analyses and eradication efforts.                                   Methods:             A 10-step framework termed “ANTICIPATE,” focusing on signal identification, incidence, causality, and eradication guided our evaluations.                                   Results:             Initial cases were identified by a hematologist (Eprex), clinical study monitors (HX575), and 4 nurses (peginesatide). The number of persons with individual ADRs was 13 PRCA cases for epoetin, 2 antibody-mediated PRCA cases for HX575, and 5 fatal anaphylaxis cases for peginesatide. Initial incidence estimates per 1000 treated persons were 0.27 for Eprex-associated PRCA, 11 for HX575-associated PRCA, and 0.38 for peginesatide fatalities. Likely causes were subcutaneous administration of epoetin formulated with polysorbate 80 (Eprex), tungsten leaching from pins included in product syringes (HX575), and inclusion of a phenol stabilizer (peginesatide). Eradication strategies included restricting Eprex administration to the intravenous route, excluding tungsten from HX575 syringes, and for peginesatide, proposed eradication was to return to single-dose vials without preservatives.                                   Conclusion:             Although the number of cases of each sADR was small, eradication was successful for 2 sADRs, and a proposed eradication was developed for a third sADR. The structured framework used to describe the above 3 sADRs in patients with CKD can also be used in other clinical settings.
Function Delivery Network: A Spatial-Temporal Execution Orchestrator for Optimizing Serverless Computing

We present Function Delivery Network (FDN), a novel spatial-temporal execution orchestrator designed to address key limitations in current serverless computing models. The FDN introduces several innovations, including a multi-tenant serverless model, a secure and reusable functional context, and distributed shared memory, to optimize resource allocation and improve performance in high-concurrency and globally distributed scenarios. We implement the FDN on a major cloud platform and evaluate its performance against traditional Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) execution using a variety of benchmark functions. Our results demonstrate significant improvements in resource utilization, execution time, and request completion rates. The FDN reduces function instance allocation by up to 97.82%, improves median response times by 45.45%, and maintains higher request completion rates at high concurrency levels compared to native FaaS execution. The FDN&#x2019;s adaptive execution window mechanism allows for fine-tuned optimization based on function characteristics and workload patterns. This approach effectively addresses challenges such as cold starts, inefficient resource allocation, and scalability limitations in current serverless platforms. By providing a more efficient and scalable model for serverless computing, the FDN enables more cost-effective and performant cloud-native applications, particularly in scenarios involving high concurrency and global distribution.
Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Lensing Power Spectrum with the POLARBEAR Experiment

Gravitational lensing due to the large-scale distribution of matter in the cosmos distorts the primordial Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and thereby induces new, small-scale $B$-mode polarization. This signal carries detailed information about the distribution of all the gravitating matter between the observer and CMB last scattering surface. We report the first direct evidence for polarization lensing based on purely CMB information, from using the four-point correlations of even- and odd-parity $E$- and $B$-mode polarization mapped over $\sim30$ square degrees of the sky measured by the POLARBEAR experiment. These data were analyzed using a blind analysis framework and checked for spurious systematic contamination using null tests and simulations. Evidence for the signal of polarization lensing and lensing $B$-modes is found at 4.2$σ$ (stat.+sys.) significance. The amplitude of matter fluctuations is measured with a precision of $27\%$, and is found to be consistent with the Lambda Cold Dark Matter ($Λ$CDM) cosmological model. This measurement demonstrates a new technique, capable of mapping all gravitating matter in the Universe, sensitive to the sum of neutrino masses, and essential for cleaning the lensing $B$-mode signal in searches for primordial gravitational waves.
Explainable Transformer-Based Framework for Suicide Risk Detection: Deep Learning with Interpretability for Mental Health Crisis Identification

The public health concern of suicide continues to rise and is increasingly prevalent on social media. The severity of this growing issue highlights the need for improved methods for detecting suicide risk. Many current deep learning approaches do not possess the required level of explainability for application in clinical settings. This study proposes the development of a transformer-based framework called “CrisisFormer,” which was trained on an imbalanced dataset containing 40,000 Reddit posts from the Suicide Watch subreddit and enhanced using DistilBERT. Additionally, the CrisisFormer framework uses three forms of explainable artificial intelligence for interpreting results: SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP), Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), and transformer attention visualizations. The CrisisFormer framework achieved superior results for detecting the risk of suicide, with 96.25% accuracy, 96.30% precision, 96.25% recall, 96.25% F1 score, and 0.9944 AUC, compared to traditional models such as CNN, LSTM, and BiLSTM. Furthermore, by including clinically relevant suicide terms in its results, CrisisFormer demonstrates a high potential for incorporation into real-world mental health systems for intervention during ongoing mental health crises.
Digital shadows: analyzing factors influencing sentencing in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) cases

Purpose Exhibiting an unprecedented rate of advancement, technology’s progression over the past two decades has regrettably led to a disturbing increase in the distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) online. Compounded by the emergence of an underground cryptocurrency market, which serves as a primary distribution channel for these materials, the investigation and sanctioning of CSAM present a complex and unique set of challenges. The purpose of this study is to accurately diagnose the CSAM sentencing landscape and build a more comprehensive, evidence-based legal framework in penology.  Design/methodology/approach The study collected and analyzed case details regarding CSAM sanctions in a database sourced from the US Department of Justice for 2020. Various factors were analyzed such as the victim’s age, offender typology and previous conviction, accompanied by an analysis of how these factors affect the sentence length.  Findings The study found that the hierarchical agency-level interactions give insight into resource allocation prioritization, as well as confirming a close relationship between prior conviction history and sentence length, with the victim’s age inversely related to sentence length. Leveraging data-driven insights, the study paves the way for more targeted and effective sanctions, ultimately contributing to the broader goal of safeguarding children from online sexual exploitation.  Originality/value The paper provides a critical analysis of the complex landscape surrounding CSAM distribution and judicial sentencing. By examining case details and leveraging data-driven insights, it offers valuable contributions to understanding the interplay between various factors such as victim age, offender typology and prior convictions on sentencing outcomes. This comprehensive approach not only sheds light on the dynamics of CSAM sanctions but also lays the groundwork for evidence-based legal frameworks in penology. Its originality lies in its nuanced examination of hierarchical agency interactions and its potential to inform more targeted interventions for safeguarding children from online exploitation.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNALS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL LAW

info:eu-repo/semantics/published
Note on a Nonlinear Differential Equation

We give evaluations in closed form of certain non linear differential equations