Enhancing a SCRM Curriculum With Cybersecurity

Supply chain-related curricula exist across many universities, with many including risk management as an important or focal element. With the rise of software-driven technology across the supply chain, how can firms manage the inherent risks associated with software as part of a procurement process? This article examines how to provide context appropriate cybersecurity exemplars in a model supply chain education program, bringing to light the issue of embedded risk in software acquisition. Through a series of specifically placed educational elements that provide targeted cybersecurity knowledge to students, the objective is to provide additional skill sets for future supply chain professionals to assist firms in including software related cybersecurity risk as a component in SCRM.

The Redemptive Potential of the Street. A Multi-angular Analysis of Dubai’s Pedestrian Infrastructure

Much has been written on the fast-paced development of Dubai as a city and the favoring of car-oriented streets in the approach to road building. This paper offers a reading of the city using the most forward-driven technological approaches in urban and transport planning to derive patterns and insights into areas of critical concern for intervention. The approach stems from the idea of incremental retrofitting as opposed to toppling over the current infrastructure, as a way to significantly enhance the walkability and viability of Dubai’s streets for its residents using minimal resources, while drastically enhancing their ability to utilize public space. The focal element of this collection of studies is the street. In full, the extensive research traces the functional structure of 36 streets within the city, offering various insights into their potential to deliver better walkable environments. From observations of field surveys to progressive applied methods, this collection of studies offers taxonomic categorizations of Dubai’s streets as well as possible concerted and planned retrofitting strategies designed to encourage safe and comfortable walking experiences in a timely manner, and reduce possibilities for contracting airborne diseases, such as the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. This paper focuses on how the interplay of various interdependent components of urban infrastructure creates the conditions for Dubai’s street space to respond to walkability needs. Building on international practice and the latest disciplinary tools, this paper delves into the physical characteristics of Dubai’s streets and interrogates some of the critical areas whereby minimal intervention is perceived to have a huge impact on spatio-temporal urban quality. In effect, the study highlights avenues for activating Dubai’s most overlooked latent public spaces: its streets.

Research on improved evidence theory based on multi-sensor information fusion

In view of the lack of effective information fusion model for heterogeneous multi-sensor, an improved Dempster/Shafer (DS) evidence theory algorithm is designed to fuse heterogeneous multi-sensor information. The algorithm first introduces the compatibility coefficient to characterize the compatibility between the evidence, obtains the weight matrix of each proposition, and then redistributes the basic probability distribution of each focal element to obtain a new evidence source. Then the concept of credibility is introduced, and the average support of evidence credibility and evidence focal element is used to improve the synthesis rule, so as to obtain the fusion result. Compared with other algorithms, the proposed algorithm can solve the problems existing in DS evidence theory when dealing with highly conflicting evidence to a certain extent, and the fusion results are more reasonable and the convergence speed is faster.

On motivation and incoordination in grammar – The case of two Polish exclamative constructions

The paper discusses two Polish exclamative constructions as instances of the Abstract Exclamative Construction (AEC) proposed by Michaelis and Lambrecht (1996). It is argued that while the Co-za Exclamative Construction is motivated straightforwardly by the identifying Co-za Question Construction as well as AEC, the Ale Exclamative Construction involves not only AEC but also a more complex process called “incoordination”, whereby a second coordinate clause with its coordinating conjunction ale becomes an autonomous monoclausal construction. The process involves a change in the information structure and in illocutionary force, which becomes increasingly expressive. In addition, it is accompanied by a shift of the sentence stress from the focal element in the second coordinate clause to the initial Ale.

Research on Improved DS Evidence Theory

In view of the lack of effective information fusion model for heterogeneous multi-sensor, an improved DS evidence theory algorithm is designed to fuse heterogeneous multi-sensor information. The algorithm first introduces the compatibility coefficient to characterize the compatibility between the evidence, obtains the weight matrix of each proposition, and then redistributes the BPA of each focal element to obtain a new evidence source. Then, the concept of credibility is introduced, and the synthetic rules are improved by using the credibility of evidence and the average support of evidence focal elements, so as to obtain the fusion results. The results show that compared with other algorithms, this algorithm can solve the problems of DS evidence theory in dealing with highly conflicting evidence to a certain extent, and the fused results are more reasonable and converge faster.

The evolution of resistance and tolerance as cancer defences

Although there is a plethora of cancer associated-factors that can ultimately culminate in death (cachexia, organ impairment, metastases, opportunistic infections, etc.), the focal element of every terminal malignancy is the failure of our natural defences to control unlimited cell proliferation. The reasons why our defences apparently lack efficiency is a complex question, potentially indicating that, under Darwinian terms, solutions other than preventing cancer progression are also important contributors. In analogy with host-parasite systems, we propose to call this latter option ‘tolerance’ to cancer. Here, we argue that the ubiquity of oncogenic processes among metazoans is at least partially attributable to both the limitations of resistance mechanisms and to the evolution of tolerance to cancer. Deciphering the ecological contexts of alternative responses to the cancer burden is not a semantic question, but rather a focal point in understanding the evolutionary ecology of host-tumour relationships, the evolution of our defences, as well as why and when certain cancers are likely to be detrimental for survival.

A New Belief Entropy Based on Deng Entropy

For Dempster–Shafer evidence theory, how to measure the uncertainty of basic probability assignment (BPA) is still an open question. Deng entropy is one of the methods for measuring the uncertainty of Dempster–Shafer evidence. Recently, some limitations of Deng entropy theory are found. For overcoming these limitations, some modified theories are given based on Deng entropy. However, only one special situation is considered in each theory method. In this paper, a unified form of the belief entropy is proposed on the basis of Deng entropy. In the new proposed method, the scale of the frame of discernment (FOD) and the relative scale of a focal element with reference to FOD are considered. Meanwhile, for an example, some properties of the belief entropy are obtained based on a special situation of a unified form. Some numerical examples are illustrated to show the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed belief entropy.