Intent-Driven Network and Service Management: Definitions, Modeling and Implementation

<div>Cognitive Autonomous Networks require the network to be able to derive and execute intelligent decisions, and thereby elevating the human operator's role to a higher level of abstraction where the operator can only specify the desired outcomes from the network. These abstract inputs, called intents, must be supported by corresponding intent-driven capabilities in the network or its management functions.</div><div>Although, Intent-Driven Management (IDM) has been published in multiple works, there is still no globally agreed end-to-end view of such IDM systems, let alone a globally agreed definition of intents. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion on the core aspects of IDM systems and combines them into an end-to-end system view with the related example solutions. Contrasting against a short review of related scientific and standards literature, the paper introduces a flexible, generic definition of intents and an End-to-End IDM System Architecture as well as the related modeling of intents to support their standardization. The paper also introduces implementation examples fitting the architecture and discusses advanced IDM features that need to be provided, including the ability to detect and resolve conflicts among intents.</div>

Intent-Driven Network and Service Management: Definitions, Modeling and Implementation

<div>Cognitive Autonomous Networks require the network to be able to derive and execute intelligent decisions, and thereby elevating the human operator's role to a higher level of abstraction where the operator can only specify the desired outcomes from the network. These abstract inputs, called intents, must be supported by corresponding intent-driven capabilities in the network or its management functions.</div><div>Although, Intent-Driven Management (IDM) has been published in multiple works, there is still no globally agreed end-to-end view of such IDM systems, let alone a globally agreed definition of intents. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion on the core aspects of IDM systems and combines them into an end-to-end system view with the related example solutions. Contrasting against a short review of related scientific and standards literature, the paper introduces a flexible, generic definition of intents and an End-to-End IDM System Architecture as well as the related modeling of intents to support their standardization. The paper also introduces implementation examples fitting the architecture and discusses advanced IDM features that need to be provided, including the ability to detect and resolve conflicts among intents.</div>

Kinetic Study on the Reactivity of Azanone (HNO) toward Cyclic C-Nucleophiles

Azanone (HNO) is an elusive electrophilic reactive nitrogen species of growing pharmacological and biological significance. Here, we present a comparative kinetic study of HNO reactivity toward selected cyclic C-nucleophiles under aqueous conditions at pH 7.4. We applied the competition kinetics method, which is based on the use of a fluorescein-derived boronate probe FlBA and two parallel HNO reactions: with the studied scavenger or with O2 (k = 1.8 × 104 M−1s−1). We determined the second-order rate constants of HNO reactions with 13 structurally diverse C-nucleophiles (k = 33–20,000 M−1s−1). The results show that the reactivity of HNO toward C-nucleophiles depends strongly on the structure of the scavenger. The data are supported with quantum mechanical calculations. A comprehensive discussion of the HNO reaction with C-nucleophiles is provided.

Surgical Gynecology

Gynecology is principally an operative specialty and the range of gynecologic procedures managed is constantly expanding due to improved instrumentation and minimally invasive techniques. Covering the entire spectrum of gynecologic surgery through a case-based, digestible format, procedures such as vaginal, transvaginal, hysteroscopic, laparoscopic, robotic, and abdominal procedures are included, as well as common surgical challenges and complications. For each case, a clinical vignette outlines the situation and the clinical context of the patient, followed by a comprehensive discussion of the evidence-based management approach and key teaching points. The decision to operate, contraindications, alternatives to surgery and preoperative counseling is discussed in detail along with the level of care needed for each case. Readers will improve their knowledge base of gynecologic surgery and gain multiple tools to overcome common surgical obstacles.

eID and Self-Sovereign Identity Usage: An Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic helped countries to increase the use of their mobile eID solutions. These are based on traditional identity management systems, which suffer from weaknesses, such as the reliance on a central entity to provide the identity data and the lack of control of the user over her or his data. The introduction of self-sovereign identity (SSI) for e-government systems can strengthen the privacy of the citizens while enabling identification also for the weakest. To successfully initiate SSI, different factors have to be taken into account. In order to have a clear understanding of the challenges, but also lessons learned, we provide an overview of existing solutions and projects and conducted an analysis of their experiences. Based on a taxonomy, we identified strong points, as well as encountered challenges. The contribution of this paper is threefold: First, we enhanced existing taxonomies based on the literature for further evaluations. Second, we analyzed eID solutions for lessons learned. Third, we evaluated more recently started SSI projects in different states of their lifecycle. This led to a comprehensive discussion of the lessons learned and challenges to address, as well as further findings.

No soul to damn? Revisiting the case for corporate manslaughter in New Zealand

<p>Currently a corporation cannot be convicted of manslaughter in New Zealand. Increasingly, this distinction demarcated between individuals and corporations seems out of touch, particularly in light of legislation passed in cognate jurisdictions and the ascendance of a plethora of industrial disasters both in New Zealand and abroad. Taking as its focus the Report of the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety (2013), this paper contemplates the above issues, concluding that the offence’s alignment with fundamental criminal law principles makes a strong case for its introduction in New Zealand. Consideration is also given to the format and rules of attribution that should accompany a resolve to prosecute corporate manslaughter, finding that a more comprehensive discussion, going beyond the recommendations of the Taskforce, is necessary before any legislation is settled on.</p>

B Discrepancies Hold Their Ground

This write-up aims at a comprehensive discussion of the status of the so-called B-anomalies, as well as their interpretation from an effective-theory point of view. The focus is on presenting facts and physics arguments using the bare minimum of equations and pointing instead to the relevant literature in each specific case.

A Decentralized Framework for Patents and Intellectual Property as NFT in Blockchain Networks

With the explosive development of decentralized finance (DeFi), we witness a phenomenal growth in tokenization of all kinds of assets, including equity, funds, debt, and real estate. By taking advantage of blockchain technology, digital assets are broadly grouped into fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFT). Here non-fungible tokens refer to those with unique and non-substitutable properties. Although the application of NFT is currently limited to digital fantasy artwork, games, collectible, etc., due to its unique capabilities, protocols, and platforms, they could be utilized in more practical issues. The main objective of this paper is to examine the requirements of presenting intellectual property assets, specifically patents, as NFTs. Hence, we offer a layered conceptual NFT-based patent framework with a comprehensive discussion on each layer, including storage, decentralized authentication, decentralized verification, Blockchain, and application layer. Furthermore, a series of open challenges about NFT-based patents and the possible future directions are highlighted. The proposed framework provides fundamental elements and guidance for businesses in taking advantage of NFTs in real-world problems such as grant patents, funding, biotechnology, event ticketing, and so forth.

Can Robots Get Some Human Rights? A Cross-Disciplinary Discussion

An autonomous household robot passed a self-awareness test in 2015, proving that the cognitive capabilities of robots are heading towards those of humans. While this is a milestone in AI, it raises questions about legal implications. If robots are progressively developing cognition, it is important to discuss whether they are entitled to justice pursuant to conventional notions of human rights. This paper offers a comprehensive discussion of this complex question through cross-disciplinary scholarly sources from computer science, ethics, and law. The computer science perspective dissects hardware and software of robots to unveil whether human behavior can be efficiently replicated. The ethics perspective utilizes insights from robot ethics scholars to help decide whether robots can act morally enough to be endowed with human rights. The legal perspective provides an in-depth discussion of human rights with an emphasis on eligibility. The article concludes with recommendations including open research issues.

RNA-Stable Isotope Probing v2

The following protocol describes how to perform an RNA-Stable Isotope Probing experiment. The scope of this protocol only covers the parts involving separating labelled RNA from unlabelled RNA using ultracentrifugation in a caesium trifluoroacetate density gradient and downstream quantification to evaluate whether the labelling and separation of the RNA were successful. Total RNA should be extracted from an environmental sample or an enrichment culture that was incubated with an isotopically-labelled substrate. Labelling can be of the carbon, oxygen or nitrogen in the RNA (or any combination of the 3). For environmental samples, we recommend extracting RNA using our protocol Total Nucleic Acids Extraction from Soil and purifying it using the Purification of RNA from Crude NA Extract protocol. This protocol is based on the following papers: Whiteley et al. (2007); Dumont et al. (2011); Angel and Conrad (2013). For a comprehensive discussion on how to design a SIP experiment and how to analyse the resulting data, we recommend referring to the recent book on the subject: Stable Isotope Probing: Methods and Protocols, especially chapters: 1-3 and 9-18.