In a communication network with a source node, a multicast tree is defined as a tree rooted at the source node and all its leaves being recipients of the multicast originating at the source. The tree or bandwidth cost is normally measured by its utilization of tree links along with the quality of service measures such as delay constraint and end-to-end delay. However, if nodes are allowed to join or leave the multicast group at any time during the lifetime of (...) the multicast connection, then the problem is known as dynamic multicast routing problem. In this article, we combine a greedy approach with static multicast routing using Tabu Search to find a low-cost dynamic multicast tree with desirable QoS parameters. The proposed algorithm is then compared with several static multicast routing algorithms. The simulation results show that, on a large number of events, i.e., where nodes are leaving or joining, the proposed algorithm is able to find multicast trees of lower cost and more desirable QoS properties. (shrink)

We propose three extensions of the theory developed by Juslin & Vll (J&V). First, motion should be considered as an additional mechanism. Second, synchronization plays a role in eliciting emotion. And, third, the spectrum of musical affect or feelings is denser and broader than the spectrum of emotions, suggesting an expansion of the scope of the theory beyond emotions.

The precocious induction in vivo and in culture of insect and amphibian metamorphosis by exogenous ecdysteroids and thyroid hormones, and its retardation or inhibition by juvenile hormone and prolactin, respectively, has allowed the analysis of such diverse processes of post‐embryonic development as morphogenesis, tissue remodelling, functional reorganization, and programmed cell death. Metamorphosis in vertebrates also shares many similarities with mammalian development in the late foetal and perinatal period. This review describes the regulation of expression of some of the ‘adult’ gene (...) products during metamorphosis in invertebrates and vertebrates. Recent studies on metamorphosis have revealed the important role played by auto‐induction of hormone receptor genes, based on which a model will be presented to explain the activation of ‘downstream’ genes which give rise to the adult phenotype. It will also be argued that metamorphosis is an ideal model for analyzing some of the major mechanisms governing post‐embryonic development. (shrink)

This study applies signaling theory to investigate how an organization's environmental actions, in the form of symbolic (Sym) and substantive (Sub) pro-environmental behavior (PEB), impact the perceptions of organizational hypocrisy and perceived integrity of its leaders. The authors collected data from a sample of 211 employees working in various industries at three different points with a 1-month interval and used AMOS-SEM for data analysis. We found a positive relationship between Sym-PEB and organizational hypocrisy, while Sub-PEB was negatively associated with organizational (...) hypocrisy. Findings for mediation analyses revealed that organizational hypocrisy mediated between (a) Sym-PEB and leaders' integrity, and (b) Sub-PEB and leaders’ integrity. We contribute to the leadership and workplace ethics literature by highlighting important paths through which organizational environmental action impacts perceptions of organizational hypocrisy and leaders' integrity. The study reveals the multifaceted nature of organizational pro-environmental behavior and its impact on the integrity of leaders. Our study has important implications for theory and practice. (shrink)

The article offers a panoramic view of the tropes of “space” and “place” in the poetry of Avot Yeshurun, and explores the radical transformation they underwent throughout the years – from the early poems of the 1930s, to the last volume of poems published before the poet’s death in 1992. I contend that the shift in the nature of the Yeshurunian space, caused by the catastrophe of the Shoah, the foundation of the State of Israel, and the Palestinian Nakba that (...) proceeded it, can be viewed through the prism of what I call “the problem of transference”. Struggling to re-connect the now insurmountably severed worlds – the pre-catastrophe world of the golah, and the new, post-catastrophe, Israeli world – Yeshurun’s poetry exhibits an ever-growing tendency to transfer language-materials from one side of the abyss to the other, desperately attempting to both salvage the remains of the ruined home, and establish the new world as a proper dwelling place. This back-and-forth movement of traumatic transference, I argue, is a powerful interpretive tool by which to understand the poet’s entire poetic project and to account for its peculiarities, and above all - its famous “clash of languages” which consists of Hebrew, Yiddish, and Arabic. (shrink)

The developing vertebrate oocyte autonomously makes most of the components of the machinery for DNA and protein synthesis, as well as ‘maternal’ mRNAs, needed immediately after fertilization. However, specialized egg constituents such as yolk proteins, egg white, cholesterol, lipoproteins and egg coat substances, are formed in the liver, oviduct and perhaps in follicle cells. The assembly of the developing egg is therefore a fascinating example of division of labor among oocytes and extra‐oocyte tissues, the coordination of activities of the latter (...) being achieved by hormones. (shrink)

Minimal theory of mind is presented in the theory of mind literature as a middle ground between full-blown ToM and mere behavior-reading. Minimal ToM seems to be a useful construct for studying and understanding the minds of nonhuman animals and infants. However, providing an account of minimal ToM on which minimal mindreading is significantly less demanding than full-blown mindreading yet more than just a behavior-reading process is a challenge. In this paper, I argue that to address this challenge, we need (...) to depart from the traditional framework of mindreading in more radical ways than offered by current minimal theory of mind accounts. First, I explain the traditional view of mindreading on which mental state attribution is treated as essential for mindreading and analyze the general respects in which it makes mindreading demanding for the mindreader, such as requiring the mindreader to have concepts of mental states, engage in inferential reasoning processes involving mental states, and form meta-representations. Then I discuss and critically evaluate two accounts of minimal ToM and argue that these accounts either do not depart sufficiently from the demanding requirements of traditional mindreading or risk becoming re-descriptions of behavior-reading accounts. Finally, I present an alternative Millikanian account of minimal ToM that avoids this risk while departing more radically from the traditional view of mindreading by providing a way for minimal mindreaders to represent the mental states of others and respond to them without engaging in conceptual mental state attribution. (shrink)

This article describes the potential impact that free (i.e., open source) software can have on an existing commercial software market. A model for the software market is constructed in terms of autonomous agents, which represent the users, the companies, and the free software providers. The model specifies a reservation price for each user agent and develops a gradient learning strategy for revenue-maximizing company agents. Simulations explore parameters such as the demand distribution, and the relative importance of market share, advertising and (...) random effects in product visibility. Results from the case without free software show a prevalence of monopolies, which is consistent with other studies of high-technology market economics. The effects of free software are not uniform, but are highly parameter dependent. A “capture region” is found in which free software eventually dominates the market. (shrink)

Context. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter carry a big load of people’s opinions about politics and leaders, which makes them a good source of information for researchers to exploit different tasks that include election predictions. Objective. Identify, categorize, and present a comprehensive overview of the approaches, techniques, and tools used in election predictions on Twitter. Method. Conducted a systematic mapping study on election predictions on Twitter and provided empirical evidence for the work published between January 2010 and (...) January 2021. Results. This research identified 787 studies related to election predictions on Twitter. 98 primary studies were selected after defining and implementing several inclusion/exclusion criteria. The results show that most of the studies implemented sentiment analysis followed by volume-based and social network analysis approaches. The majority of the studies employed supervised learning techniques, subsequently, lexicon-based approach SA, volume-based, and unsupervised learning. Besides this, 18 types of dictionaries were identified. Elections of 28 countries were analyzed, mainly USA and Indian elections. Furthermore, the results revealed that 50% of the primary studies used English tweets. The demographic data showed that academic organizations and conference venues are the most active. Conclusion. The evolution of the work published in the past 11 years shows that most of the studies employed SA. The implementation of SNA techniques is lower as compared to SA. Appropriate political labelled datasets are not available, especially in languages other than English. Deep learning needs to be employed in this domain to get better predictions. (shrink)

Originally premiering in 1963, the BBC television series Doctor Who has long been criticized for essentializing colonial scenarios and failing to address issues of race and post-colonial realities. As a white male with the privilege to explore time and space, the titular Doctor stands in contrast to his human companion Martha Jones, a Black woman who represents the first and only main character in the show to be a medical professional of color. The relationship between the Doctor and Martha inherently (...) demands an exploration of the meaning of doctorhood. In studying the ways in which these characters embody the idea of “doctor,” we examine how race structures their approach to medicine, heroism, and colonialism. Whereas the Doctor personifies the figure of colonizer and post-colonial white savior, Martha emerges as a radical figure whose doctorhood potentially challenges and dismantles the colonial history of medicine. Through Afrofuturist and Afrosurrealist lenses, Martha represents a potentially subversive figure who offers a visionary medicine rooted in social justice. (shrink)

Political philosophers often draw their conclusions on how political systems ought to be by first investigating human nature and then proposing recommendations extrapolating from those investigations. They attempt to do this by creating a hypothetical ‘state of nature’ where human beings would be unaffected by social, political, and cultural paradigms and can act freely in pursuit of their instincts, thereby revealing their true nature. English philosopher Thomas Hobbes followed this method of investigation and found that human beings are naturally violent, (...) individualistic, warlike and therefore concluded that political theory ought to be as such to prevent human beings from acting out their baser impulses through draconian authoritative measures when necessary. In this paper, I challenge Hobbes’s claim on human nature by citing contemporary research on cognitive sciences which demonstrates that human beings have a natural predisposition to believe in supernatural agency (God/s) and therefore in the state of nature must behave in such a way as contemporary psychologists discovered investigating the effect of religiosity on human beings such as increased cooperation, selfless behavior towards genetically unrelated strangers, reduced crime rate deterred by supernatural punishment, etcetera. I argue that if we take into account the human propensity to believe in the supernatural agency then the state of nature hypothesized by Hobbes would need to be modified and therefore so would his political theory. Given the integration of cognitive science of religion into the state of nature, I conclude that the ideal political system must be centered around religion. Philosophy and Progress, Vol#67-68; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2020 P 77-118. (shrink)

There is evidence of reciprocal connectivity, similarity of oscillatory responses to stimulation of multiple motor and somatosensory cortices, whole system oscillation, and short- latency responses to behavioral perturbation. These suggest that frame/content may be instantiated by overlapping neural populations, and that the genesis of frame oscillations may be profitably thought of as an emergent property of a distributed neural system.

This manuscript investigates fixed point of single-valued Hardy-Roger’s type F -contraction globally as well as locally in a convex b -metric space. The paper, using generalized Mann’s iteration, iterates fixed point of the abovementioned contraction; however, the third axiom of the F -contraction is removed, and thus the mapping F is relaxed. An important approach used in the article is, though a subset closed ball of a complete convex b -metric space is not necessarily complete, the convergence of the Cauchy (...) sequence is confirmed in the subset closed ball. The results further lead us to some important corollaries, and examples are produced in support of our main theorems. The paper most importantly presents application of our results in finding solution to the integral equations. (shrink)

We may sharpen our understanding of legislation by juxtaposing it with other types of legal act. John Gardner attempts to differentiate legislation from legal rulings – an unusual juxtaposition in itself – and his claims about the difference are surprising. Legal rulings are legally binding pronouncements issued by judges – eg ‘A owes B $50 in compensation’. The article queries the analysis advanced by Gardner and endorsed by other accounts. It instead offers an alternative distinction, and in so doing seeks (...) to clarify what legislation is by what it is not. (shrink)

Three experiments investigated the modularity of harmonic expectations that are based on cultural schemata despite the availability of more predictive veridical information. Participants were presented with prime–target chord pairs and made an intonation judgment about each target. Schematic expectation was manipulated by the combination of prime and target, with some transitions being schematically more probable than others. Veridical information in the form of prime–target previews, local transition probabilities, or valid versus invalid previews was also provided. Processing was facilitated when a (...) schematically probable target chord followed the prime. Furthermore, this effect was independent of all manipulations of veridical expectation. A solution to L. B. Meyer's (1967b) query "On Rehearing Music" is suggested, in which schematic knowledge contributes to harmonic expectation in a modular manner regardless of whether any veridical knowledge exists. (shrink)

Built on the integrated theoretical framework of antecedents of flow and expectation confirmation model, this research investigates the way flow experience drives the online students’ intention to engage in online English teaching platforms. This study focused on the online students engaged in online English learning platforms in Taiwan. A total of 500 online students were selected. An online survey was conducted with the help of a marketing research agency located in Taiwan. According to the results, the online students’ flow experience (...) was found to be in a significant relationship with continuous intention. The antecedents, including perceived enjoyment, challenge, and situational involvement, were found to be in a positive relationship with flow experience; however, confirmation and perceived vividness did not have significant effects on the flow. Furthermore, flow and confirmation were found to be in a significant relationship with perceived usefulness and satisfaction. Moreover, perceived usefulness was found to be in a significant relationship with satisfaction and continuous intention. Lastly, satisfaction was found to be in a significant relationship with continuous intention. Finally, the questions proposed in this research with their empirical findings offer profound understanding for establishing a well-devised online English learning platform that can motivate online learning. These results and managerial implications for online English language platforms are innovative and significant in practice. (shrink)

The 2019 Pandemic has forced students to take online classes, increasing their stress levels and negatively impacting their academic performance. This issue urges the development of a mechanism to make online learning more effective in this nerve-racking time. Therefore, the present study has integrated the task technology fit model and the DeLone and McLean Model of Information Systems Success to address the stated issue. The data were collected from 330 and 326 students of top-ranked public and private universities of Punjab, (...) respectively. The theoretical framework was analyzed with the help of structural equation modeling using Analysis of Moment Structures. The findings indicate that overall quality positively predicts performance through the mediating role of user satisfaction and TTF. The overall quality also positively elevates performance through the mediating role of user satisfaction and actual usage of the system. Moreover, perceived usefulness proved to be a moderator between overall quality and user satisfaction. Finally, the expected practical and theoretical implications have also been discussed. (shrink)

Daily returns of stock markets in 27 emerging markets in Asia, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe from the early 1990s through 2006 are analyzed for the possible presence of nonlinear speculative bubbles. The absence of these is tested for by studying residuals of VAR-based fundamentals, using the Hamilton regime-switching model and the rescaled range analysis of Hurst. For the first test absence of bubbles is rejected for 24 countries (except Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan), and for the second it (...) is rejected for 26 (except Malaysia). BDS testing on residuals after ARCH effects are removed fails to reject further nonlinearity in the residual series for all countries. (shrink)

Speculative bubbles present a problem for the development of sophisticated financial markets in developing economies. This paper discusses the evolution of regulatory institutions in Pakistan pertaining to the Karachi stock exchange and empirically tests for the presence of stock market bubbles in that stock market in recent years. A fundamental is estimated using a VAR approach, and residuals of this fundamental are tested for trends using Hamilton regime switching and Hurst rescaled range methods. Nonlinearities beyond ARCH are also tested for (...) using the BDS test. We are unable to reject the hypothesis of no bubbles or non nonlinearities during the period studied, indicating that Pakistan faces this difficult problem in developing appropriate regulations and institutions for the oversight of its financial markets. (shrink)

The machines exhibit an intelligence which is artificial intelligence, and it is the design of intelligent agents. A system is represented by an intelligent agent who perceives its environment and the success rate is maximized by taking the action. The AI research is highly specialized and there are two subfields and each communication fails often. The popular AI approaches include the traditional symbolic AI and computational intelligence. In order to optimize the seismic design of the reinforced concrete pier structure, the (...) particle swarm optimization algorithm and the reaction spectrum analysis method are combined; they establish a regular bridge of the design variable with cross-sectional characteristics and reinforcement ratios, with the target function. The seismic optimization design framework of the pier is transformed into a multi-objective optimization problem. Calculations show that the method can quickly obtain the optimal design parameters that meet multi-objective requirements. The improved PSO main program and the calling push-over program run time are 4.32 and 1347.56 s, respectively; the push-over program running time is 99.68% of the run time of the total program. Optimization of the seismic performance of the rear bridge pier is significantly improved and is more in line with the design method; the design method proposed in this article is more practical. (shrink)

There is a growing demand for information and computational technology for surgeons help with surgical planning as well as prosthetics design. The two-dimensional images are registered to the three-dimensional (3D) model for high efficiency. To reconstruct the 3D model of knee joint including bone structure and main soft tissue structure, the evaluation and analysis of sports injury and rehabilitation treatment are detailed in this study. Mimics 10.0 was used to reconstruct the bone structure, ligament, and meniscus according to the pulse (...) diffusion-weighted imaging sequence (PDWI) and stir sequences of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Excluding congenital malformations and diseases of the skeletal muscle system, MRI scanning was performed on bilateral knee joints. Proton weighted sequence (PDWI sequence) and stir pulse sequence were selected for MRI. The models were imported into Geomagic Studio 11 software for refinement and modification, and 3D registration of bone structure and main soft tissue structure was performed to construct a digital model of knee joint bone structure and accessory cartilage and ligament structure. The 3D knee joint model including bone, meniscus, and collateral ligament was established. Reconstruction and image registration based on mimics and Geomagic Studio can build a 3D model of knee joint with satisfactory morphology, which can meet the requirements of teaching, motion simulation, and biomechanical analysis. (shrink)

Optimization by definition is the action of making most effective or the best use of a resource or situation and that is required almost in every field of engineering. In this work, the optimization of Least Mean square (LMS) algorithm is carried out with the help of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). Efforts have been made to find out the advantages and disadvantages of combining gradient based (LMS) algorithm with Swarm Intelligence SI (ACO, PSO). This optimization (...) of LMS algorithm will help us in further extending the uses of adaptive filtering to the system having multi-model error surface that is still a gray area of adaptive filtering. Because the available version of LMS algorithm that plays an important role in adaptive filtering is a gradient based algorithm, that get stuck at the local minima of system with multi-model error surface considering it global minima, resulting in an non-optimized convergence. By virtue of the proposed method we have got a profound solution for the problem associated with system with multimodal error surface. The results depict significant improvements in the performance and displayed fast convergence rate, rather stucking at local minima. Both the SI techniques displayed their own advantage and can be separately combined with LMS algorithm for adaptive filtering. This optimization of LMS algorithm will further help to resolve serious interference and noise issues and holds a very important application in the field of biomedical science. (shrink)

Efforts to build research capacity and capability in low and middle income countries (LMIC) has progressed over the last three decades, yet it confronts many challenges including issues with communicating or even negotiating across different cultures. Implementing global research requires a broader understanding of community engagement and participatory research approaches. There is a considerable amount of guidance available on community engagement in clinical trials, especially for studies for HIV/aids, even culturally specific codes for recruiting vulnerable populations such as the San (...) or Maori people. However, the same cannot be said for implementing research in global health. In an effort to build on this work, the Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning and University College London in the UK sought to better understand differences in beliefs, values and norms of local communities in Pakistan. In particular, they have sought to help researchers from high income countries (HIC) understand how their values are perceived and understood by the local indigenous researchers in Pakistan. To achieve this end, a group discussion was organised with indigenous researchers at Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning. The discussion will ultimately help inform the development of a cultural protocol for researchers from HIC engaging with communities in LMIC. This discussion revealed five common themes; (1) religious principles and rules, (2) differing concepts of and moral emphasis on autonomy and privacy, (3) importance of respect and trust; (4) cultural differences (etiquette); (5) custom and tradition (gift giving and hospitality). Based on the above themes, we present a preliminary cultural analysis to raise awareness and to prepare researchers from HIC conducting cross cultural research in Pakistan. This is likely to be particularly relevant in collectivistic cultures where social interconnectedness, family and community is valued above individual autonomy and the self is not considered central to moral thinking. In certain cultures, HIC ideas of individual autonomy, the notion of informed consent may be regarded as a collective family decision. In addition, there may still be acceptance of traditional professional roles such as ‘doctor knows best’, while respect and privacy may have very different meanings. (shrink)

Social media marketing has become one of the most significant growth paths for many businesses in today’s world. However, many companies are still unclear about using social media marketing to get their advantages, particularly in an e-commerce environment. In this background, this study is proposed to examine the effects of social media marketing activities on relationship quality, such as commitment, trust, and satisfaction in order to predict consumers’ online repurchase intentions in China’s e-commerce environment. This study proposed a theoretical model (...) by using the stimulus-organism-response theory. Using a structured questionnaire and purposive sampling, this study examined the responses of 403 consumers through partial least square-structural equation modeling. The findings discovered that SMMAs significantly strengthen the relationship quality factors, such as commitment, trust, and satisfaction, which in turn positively increase consumer online repurchase intentions in China’s e-commerce industry. This is novel research that contributes to the S-O-R theory and provides several managerial guidelines that assist managers in improving their business performance in the e-commerce industry. This research also highlighted some limitations. (shrink)

_Unemployment poses a significant threat to Pakistan's economy alongside other global countries. The current study tries to determine the substantial determinants affecting unemployment in the country. Data was retrieved from the worldwide development indicator (WDI) and worldwide governance indicators (WGI) by employing Time series analysis from 1996 to 2021. Augmented Dicky Fuller and Philips-Perron Unit root test were employed to check the stationary of the data. To figure out the short-run and long-run cointegration among variables, the model Autoregressive distributed lag (...) (ARDL) was applied. Findings indicate that all variables were statistically significant. Inflation, FDI and GDP are negatively affecting unemployment. While population growth, external debt and governance index have a positive association with unemployment. Growing population and external debt are substantial contributors to unemployment, while governance reveals inadequate effectiveness in addressing this challenge. Study recommended to improve FDI and GDP growth in Pakistan to reduce unemployment. Furthermore, govt stability and effective policies are necessary to overcome the problem of unemployment._. (shrink)