scholarly journals The Meaning of Private in an Age of Surveillance

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
William Walter Bostock

The private has great significance for the individual as it is where identity is stored. However, the private comes at a cost, particularly in a time of mass surveillance, which is heightened by the present Coronavirus pandemic, and is becoming more and more rare as individuals seek security. At the collective level, whole societies are moving towards privatisation, as the private gives relief from increased surveillance by media, governments and informed individuals and organisations, thus allowing more operational flexibility. Private and public are significant as polar ends of a spectrum in which individuals and collectivities must position themselves on a wide range of issues while maintaining identity. As shown in the case of airport privatisation, the determining process has been influenced by cultural factors such as a desire to avoid surveillance and scrutiny, sociological factors such as contagion, and political factors such as convergence. In all areas of human activity, a rebalancing between private and public may be necessary, and a transdisciplinary approach would be appropriate.

Author(s):  
Rainer Kurz ◽  
Sebouh Ohanian ◽  
Matt Lubomirsky

This paper discusses issues that influence the decision on the arrangement of compressors and the type of equipment in gas pipeline compressor stations. Different concepts such as multiple small units versus single large units are considered, both regarding their impact on the individual station and the overall pipeline. The necessity of standby units is discussed. Various concepts for drivers (gas turbine, gas motor and electric motor) and compressors (centrifugal and reciprocating) are analyzed. The importance of considering all possible operating conditions is stressed. With the wide range of possible operating conditions for the pipeline in mind, the discussion will be brought into the general context of operational flexibility, availability, reliability, installation issues, remote control, and operability of gas turbine driven centrifugal compressors compared to other solutions such as electric motor driven compressors or gas engine driven reciprocating compressors. The impact of different concepts on emissions and fuel cost is discussed. Among the assumptions in this paper are the performance characteristics of the compressor. It will be outlined how these performance characteristics influence the conclusions.


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-74
Author(s):  
Attiya Y. Javed

The economic reform process began in India in 1991. However, the reform agenda is still far from its goals as is evident from low per capita income. Thus, this reform effort has not produced the desired outcome of a faster rate of economic and social development in a meaningful way. It is the premise of this volume that to transform the social and economic landscape, the proposed reforms should be broadbased and multi-pronged which take into account incentives for the stockholders in both the private and public sectors. The institutions are the rules that govern economy and include the fundamental legal, political, and social rules that establish the basis for production, exchange, and distribution. The two editors of this volume have received contributions from a number of authors and the wide range of papers are grouped under five main headings: political economy of reforms, reforming public goods delivery, reform issues in agriculture and rural governance, and reforming the district and financial sector.


Author(s):  
O. Y. Balalaieva ◽  

The purpose of the article is to study the dynamics of electronic dictionaries development abroad and in Ukraine using methods of analysis of scientific sources, comparison, generalization and systematization. Electronic dictionaries have been found to be a relatively new phenomenon in the lexicographic market, evolving from machine-readable dictionaries, exact copies of paper editions to complex digital lexicographic systems with a powerful arsenal of functions over the decades. The stages of development of autonomous and online dictionaries are described. Electronic dictionaries due to the advanced search capabilities, speed, simplicity, ease of use, accessibility and compactness have gained popularity among a wide range of users. Today they are used in many spheres of human activity – scientific, educational, professional, everyday communication. However, the analysis of the current level of development of Ukrainian electronic resources indicates a shortage of electronic dictionaries both common and terminological vocabulary. The lack of electronic dictionaries is due to a number of objective problems, both practical and theoretical, that is why research in the field of domestic computer lexicography is a promising area of further research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (10(79)) ◽  
pp. 12-18
Author(s):  
G. Bubyreva

The existing legislation determines the education as "an integral and focused process of teaching and upbringing, which represents a socially important value and shall be implemented so as to meet the interests of the individual, the family, the society and the state". However, even in this part, the meaning of the notion ‘socially significant benefit is not specified and allows for a wide range of interpretation [2]. Yet the more inconcrete is the answer to the question – "who and how should determine the interests of the individual, the family and even the state?" The national doctrine of education in the Russian Federation, which determined the goals of teaching and upbringing, the ways to attain them by means of the state policy regulating the field of education, the target achievements of the development of the educational system for the period up to 2025, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 4, 2000 #751, was abrogated by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of March 29, 2014 #245 [7]. The new doctrine has not been developed so far. The RAE Academician A.B. Khutorsky believes that the absence of the national doctrine of education presents a threat to national security and a violation of the right of citizens to quality education. Accordingly, the teacher has to solve the problem of achieving the harmony of interests of the individual, the family, the society and the government on their own, which, however, judging by the officially published results, is the task that exceeds the abilities of the participants of the educational process.  The particular concern about the results of the patriotic upbringing served as a basis for the legislative initiative of the RF President V. V. Putin, who introduced the project of an amendment to the Law of RF "About Education of the Russian Federation" to the State Duma in 2020, regarding the quality of patriotic upbringing [3]. Patriotism, considered by the President of RF V. V. Putin as the only possible idea to unite the nation is "THE FEELING OF LOVE OF THE MOTHERLAND" and the readiness for every sacrifice and heroic deed for the sake of the interests of your Motherland. However, the practicing educators experience shortfalls in efficient methodologies of patriotic upbringing, which should let them bring up citizens, loving their Motherland more than themselves. The article is dedicated to solution to this problem based on the Value-sense paradigm of upbringing educational dynasty of the Kurbatovs [15].


Author(s):  
Pete Dale

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (13) ◽  
pp. 7181
Author(s):  
Seong-Im Park ◽  
Hyeok Jin Kwon ◽  
Mi Hyeon Cho ◽  
Ji Sun Song ◽  
Beom-Gi Kim ◽  
...  

The AP2/EREBP family transcription factors play important roles in a wide range of stress tolerance and hormone signaling. In this study, a heat-inducible rice ERF gene was isolated and functionally characterized. The OsERF115/AP2EREBP110 was categorized to Group-IIIc of the rice AP2/EREBP family and strongly induced by heat and drought treatment. The OsERF115/AP2EREBP110 protein targeted to nuclei and suppressed the ABA-induced transcriptional activation of Rab16A promoter in rice protoplasts. Overexpression of OsERF115/AP2EREBP110 enhanced thermotolerance of seeds and vegetative growth stage plants. The OsERF115/AP2EREBP110 overexpressing (OE) plants exhibited higher proline level and increased expression of a proline biosynthesis P5CS1 gene. Phenotyping of water use dynamics of the individual plant indicates that the OsERF115/AP2EREBP110-OE plant exhibited better water saving traits under heat and drought combined stress. Our combined results suggest the potential use of OsERF115/AP2EREBP110 as a candidate gene for genetic engineering approaches to develop heat and drought stress-tolerant crops.


Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 290
Author(s):  
Maxim Pyzh ◽  
Kevin Keiler ◽  
Simeon I. Mistakidis ◽  
Peter Schmelcher

We address the interplay of few lattice trapped bosons interacting with an impurity atom in a box potential. For the ground state, a classification is performed based on the fidelity allowing to quantify the susceptibility of the composite system to structural changes due to the intercomponent coupling. We analyze the overall response at the many-body level and contrast it to the single-particle level. By inspecting different entropy measures we capture the degree of entanglement and intraspecies correlations for a wide range of intra- and intercomponent interactions and lattice depths. We also spatially resolve the imprint of the entanglement on the one- and two-body density distributions showcasing that it accelerates the phase separation process or acts against spatial localization for repulsive and attractive intercomponent interactions, respectively. The many-body effects on the tunneling dynamics of the individual components, resulting from their counterflow, are also discussed. The tunneling period of the impurity is very sensitive to the value of the impurity-medium coupling due to its effective dressing by the few-body medium. Our work provides implications for engineering localized structures in correlated impurity settings using species selective optical potentials.


Author(s):  
David M. Wineroither ◽  
Rudolf Metz

AbstractThis report surveys four approaches that are pivotal to the study of preference formation: (a) the range, validity, and theoretical foundations of explanations of political preferences at the individual and mass levels, (b) the exploration of key objects of preference formation attached to the democratic political process (i.e., voting in competitive elections), (c) the top-down vs. bottom-up character of preference formation as addressed in leader–follower studies, and (d) gene–environment interaction and the explanatory weight of genetic predisposition against the cumulative weight of social experiences.In recent years, our understanding of sites and processes of (individual) political-preference formation has substantially improved. First, this applies to a greater variety of objects that provide fresh insight into the functioning and stability of contemporary democracy. Second, we observe the reaffirmation of pivotal theories and key concepts in adapted form against widespread challenge. This applies to the role played by social stratification, group awareness, and individual-level economic considerations. Most of these findings converge in recognising economics-based explanations. Third, research into gene–environment interplay rapidly increases the number of testable hypotheses and promises to benefit a wide range of approaches already taken and advanced in the study of political-preference formation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Juliane Kuhl ◽  
Andreas Ding ◽  
Ngoc Tuan Ngo ◽  
Andres Braschkat ◽  
Jens Fiehler ◽  
...  

Personalized medical devices adapted to the anatomy of the individual promise greater treatment success for patients, thus increasing the individual value of the product. In order to cater to individual adaptations, however, medical device companies need to be able to handle a wide range of internal processes and components. These are here referred to collectively as the personalization workload. Consequently, support is required in order to evaluate how best to target product personalization. Since the approaches presented in the literature are not able to sufficiently meet this demand, this paper introduces a new method that can be used to define an appropriate variety level for a product family taking into account standardized, variant, and personalized attributes. The new method enables the identification and evaluation of personalizable attributes within an existing product family. The method is based on established steps and tools from the field of variant-oriented product design, and is applied using a flow diverter—an implant for the treatment of aneurysm diseases—as an example product. The personalization relevance and adaptation workload for the product characteristics that constitute the differentiating product properties were analyzed and compared in order to determine a tradeoff between customer value and personalization workload. This will consequently help companies to employ targeted, deliberate personalization when designing their product families by enabling them to factor variety-induced complexity and customer value into their thinking at an early stage, thus allowing them to critically evaluate a personalization project.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
A. Khalemsky ◽  
R. Gelbard

In dynamic and big data environments the visualization of a segmentation process over time often does not enable the user to simultaneously track entire pieces. The key points are sometimes incomparable, and the user is limited to a static visual presentation of a certain point. The proposed visualization concept, called ExpanDrogram, is designed to support dynamic classifiers that run in a big data environment subject to changes in data characteristics. It offers a wide range of features that seek to maximize the customization of a segmentation problem. The main goal of the ExpanDrogram visualization is to improve comprehensiveness by combining both the individual and segment levels, illustrating the dynamics of the segmentation process over time, providing “version control” that enables the user to observe the history of changes, and more. The method is illustrated using different datasets, with which we demonstrate multiple segmentation parameters, as well as multiple display layers, to highlight points such as new trend detection, outlier detection, tracking changes in original segments, and zoom in/out for more/less detail. The datasets vary in size from a small one to one of more than 12 million records.


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