Gianfranco Giulioni, Edmondo Di Giuseppe, Arianna Di Paola
This paper presents a modeling framework for simulating the decision-making processes of artificial farms populating an agent-based model for the Italian wheat production system. The decision process is based on a mathematical programming model with which farms (i.e., agents) decide the target yield (production per hectare) and the mix of inputs needed to obtain such production, namely 1) fertilizers, 2) herbicides, and 3) insecticides. The environmental impacts of conventional production practices are assessed through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), using the ReCiPe 2016 methodology at the Endpoint level. Agents are made aware of the environmental consequences of their choices through two indicators: Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), which capture human health impacts, and the number of species lost per year, reflecting impacts on ecosystems. By internalizing this information, agents can make more balanced and sustainable production decisions.
Emmanuel Otieno, Stella Asayo, Teopista Agutu
et al.
Background: Uganda’s exclusive breastfeeding rate remains high at 94%, despite significant malnutrition rates with nearly 1 in 4 children under 5 suffering from stunting. Breastfeeding is the optimal source of nutrition for infant growth and development. This study aimed to investigate breastfeeding practices and experiences of primary school teachers and nurses in Uganda. Methods: This qualitative study employed a case study design to collect data from 50 respondents — primary school teachers and nurses working in Mukono Municipality between October 2023 and February 2024. All breastfeeding mothers with infants aged 0-6 months were included. In-depth and key informant interviews were done to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data. Results: Breast feeding primary school teachers and nurses indicated experiencing heavy workloads, tight work schedules, and minimal institutional support towards practicing breastfeeding. As such, most breastfeeding mothers did not successfully achieve the goal of breastfeeding their infants exclusively. Conclusion: In order to improve infant health outcomes in Uganda, it is essential to address the barriers that hinder exclusive breastfeeding among working mothers. This can be achieved through policy occupational health interventions that protect breastfeeding and promote inclusivity and work life balance for mothers.
Public aspects of medicine, Practical religion. The Christian life
Accurately predicting the remaining useful life (RUL) of rotating machinery, such as bearings, is essential for ensuring equipment reliability and minimizing unexpected industrial failures. Traditional data-driven deep learning methods face challenges in practical settings due to inconsistent training and testing data distributions and limited generalization for long-term predictions.
We use a probability theory framework to discuss the search for biosignatures. This perspective allows us to analyse the potential for different biosignatures to provide convincing evidence of extraterrestrial life and to formalise frameworks for accumulating evidence. Analysing biosignatures as a function of planetary context motivates the introduction of 'peribiosignatures', biosignatures observed where life is unlikely. We argue, based on prior work in Gaia theory, that habitability itself is an example of a peribiosignature. Finally, we discuss the implications of context dependence on observational strategy, suggesting that searching the edges of the habitable zone rather than the middle might be more likely to provide convincing evidence of life.
Scientific principles can undergo various developments. While philosophers of science have acknowledged that such changes occur, there is no systematic account of the development of scientific principles. Here we propose a template for analyzing the development of scientific principles called the 'life cycle' of principles. It includes a series of processes that principles can go through: prehistory, elevation, formalization, generalization, and challenge. The life cycle, we argue, is a useful heuristic for the analysis of the development of scientific principles. We illustrate this by discussing examples from foundational physics including Lorentz invariance, Mach's principle, the naturalness principle, and the perfect cosmological principle. We also explore two applications of the template. First, we propose that the template can be employed to diagnose the quality of scientific principles. Second, we discuss the ramifications of the life cycle's processes for the empirical testability of principles.
Through in-depth thinking and reasoning about the conditions required for cells to maintain unchanged material distribution, it is concluded that life metabolic reactions require high information content. However, the self-replication of a few macromolecules such as RNA and DNA can only retain information, but cannot generate information. When thinking about the possible ways in which this information is generated, one possible way is to maintain the distribution of substances in the cell through selective permeability and active transport of membranes. This mechanism still plays an important role in today's cells but it is difficult to generate enough information. Another possible way is to generate information through stability-distillation, which continuously changes the molecular frequency distribution in the system through periodic changes in the environment and generates information from a consequentialist perspective. Unlike the RNA world hypothesis, under this hypothesis, life does not need to originate from a few self-replicating macromolecules, making the entire hypothesis more reasonable.
Kristian S. Hansen, Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, Lars P. Østerdal
We develop a unified framework for the measurement and valuation of health and productivity. Within this framework, we characterize evaluation functions allowing for compromises between the classical quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and its polar productivity-adjusted life years (PALYs). Our framework and characterization results provide a new normative basis for the economic evaluation of health care interventions, as well as occupational health and safety policies, aimed to impact both health and productivity of individuals.
For many equation-theoretical questions about modular lattices, Hall and Dilworth give a useful construction: Let $L_0$ be a lattice with largest element $u_0$, $L_1$ be a lattice disjoint from $L_0$ with smallest element $v_1$, and $a \in L_0$, $b \in L_1$ such that the intervals $[a, u_0]$ and $[v_1, b]$ are isomorphic. Then, after identifying those intervals you obtain $L_0 \cup L_1$, a lattice structure whose partial order is the transitive relation generated by the partial orders of $L_0$ and $L_1$. It is modular if $L_0$ and $L_1$ are modular. Since in this construction the index set $\{0, 1\}$ is essentially a chain, this work presents a method -- termed S-glued -- whereby a general family $L_x\ (x \in S)$ of lattices can specify a lattice with the small-scale lattice structure determined by the $L_x$ and the large-scale structure determined by $S$. A crucial application is representing finite-length modular lattices using projective geometries.
This paper investigates the consumption and investment decisions of an individual facing uncertain lifespan and stochastic labor income within a Black-Scholes market framework. A key aspect of our study involves the agent's option to choose when to acquire life insurance for bequest purposes. We examine two scenarios: one with a fixed bequest amount and another with a controlled bequest amount. Applying duality theory and addressing free-boundary problems, we analytically solve both cases, and provide explicit expressions for value functions and optimal strategies in both cases. In the first scenario, where the bequest amount is fixed, distinct outcomes emerge based on different levels of risk aversion parameter $γ$: (i) the optimal time for life insurance purchase occurs when the agent's wealth surpasses a critical threshold if $γ\in (0,1)$, or (ii) life insurance should be acquired immediately if $γ>1$. In contrast, in the second scenario with a controlled bequest amount, regardless of $γ$ values, immediate life insurance purchase proves to be optimal. Finally, we extend the analysis to consider a scenario in which the individual earmarks part of her initial wealth for inheritance, where a critical wealth threshold consistently emerges.
The term life sciences refers to the disciplines that study living organisms and life processes, and include chemistry, biology, medicine, and a range of other related disciplines. Research efforts in life sciences are heavily data-driven, as they produce and consume vast amounts of scientific data, much of which is intrinsically relational and graph-structured. The volume of data and the complexity of scientific concepts and relations referred to therein promote the application of advanced knowledge-driven technologies for managing and interpreting data, with the ultimate aim to advance scientific discovery. In this survey and position paper, we discuss recent developments and advances in the use of graph-based technologies in life sciences and set out a vision for how these technologies will impact these fields into the future. We focus on three broad topics: the construction and management of Knowledge Graphs (KGs), the use of KGs and associated technologies in the discovery of new knowledge, and the use of KGs in artificial intelligence applications to support explanations (explainable AI). We select a few exemplary use cases for each topic, discuss the challenges and open research questions within these topics, and conclude with a perspective and outlook that summarizes the overarching challenges and their potential solutions as a guide for future research.
Efficient and accurate remaining useful life prediction is a key factor for reliable and safe usage of lithium-ion batteries. This work trains a long short-term memory recurrent neural network model to learn from sequential data of discharge capacities at various cycles and voltages and to work as a cycle life predictor for battery cells cycled under different conditions. Using experimental data of first 60 - 80 cycles, our model achieves promising prediction accuracy on test sets of around 80 samples.
Life course epidemiology of chronic diseases has been dominated so far by the environmental approach. Whether it focuses on early life exposures and events or later lifestyle behaviors, this approach assumes that previous life experiences interact at each stage of life and shape subsequent health trajectories. Inspired by the analysis of social trajectories, focusing on transitions between multiple states, in multiple dimensions of the social experience, we propose in this paper a novel empirical approach to multiple time-to-event health data, denoted as multiple state analysis. Alike the so-called state sequence analysis, the aim of multiple state analysis is to create typologies of the main life course trajectories. This approach is illustrated by the analysis of records from a south London general practice electronic health record from which multiple long term conditions associated with myocardial infarction were considered. Among expected results such as the recurrent role of hypertension, multiple state analysis shows that different patterns of long term conditions including physical and mental health conditions, are associated with the onset timing of myocardial infarction but also with socio-demographics such as sex and ethnicity.
Scripture use and Scriptural authority in the postmodernist context. This article focused on the burning issue of the authority of Scripture and the way that it is currently used in the Christian and theological community. The research was necessitated by the gap between academic epistemology and the use of the Bible in religious activity. The research illustrated how a different understanding of the authority and interpretation of the Bible caused a clear division in church and society, particularly in the Reformed churches. The aim of the research was to illustrate the current abuse of the Bible in religious debate to legitimise pre-conceived convictions on theological and ethical issues. It was found that, even within the Reformed tradition, the opposing use of Scripture has caused diversity in the church community; thereby causing a serious break in the unity of the church. During the research process, it became clear that a radical new approach to Scriptural interpretation opposed the traditional Reformed understanding of the application of the Bible as per the three main confessions of the Reformed faith. What influenced such a radical new way of Scriptural authority? It was found that an analysis of philosophical systems, leading to the postmodern era, clearly prepared the way for an approach to search for the so-called true meaning of the text behind the text. This new approach was juxtaposed against the Reformed use of Scripture in the immanent text of the Bible and application thereof in the Reformed confession.
Contribution: All over the world and also in South Africa, the church community seems to be drawn into a battle for survival. Many church members have lost their faith, abandoned the church membership or moved on to other religions, mainly due to the way Scripture is currently viewed and applied. Unless the confusion in the understanding of the Bible is cleared, the process will deteriorate rapidly. In particular, the theological training of ministers and pastors needs careful consideration. Some academics have denounced their faith in the existence of God in favour of a post-theistic conviction. Students are taught that the Bible is not the Word of God, but human words about God. Such convictions have caused great confusion in church communities. It is envisioned that this research, published in a scientific journal, will underline the urgent need for the church, in general, and the Reformed faith, in particular, not to ignore the seriousness of the matter.
Practical Theology, Practical religion. The Christian life
After conducting a literature search, the purpose of this article has emerged. The essential elements of a homiletical praxis, interested in dealing with the gospel, are related to the concrete circumstances of listeners. Consequently, the feelings of angst or nothingness that listeners experience in a post-pandemic world are now integrated into the reflection of a homiletical praxis. A homiletical praxis should not fall into the trap of trying to discern the signs of the times in a one-sided manner and an over-simplifying way, but should rather help listeners to understand the essence of hope. The dimensions of yet and not yet, that enable listeners to understand the idea of hope against hope, could be functional in identifying the objective of this research. The research problem is as follows: What kind of practical theological perspectives could be delineated for a praxeology of preaching to offer insight to listeners experiencing angst and a feeling of nothingness within a post-pandemic world? The problem addressed in this article inevitably takes cognisance of the listeners’ experiences of reality caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A profound quest for a homiletical praxis in which life is central has also emerged in the research. Eventually, this research indicates the contours for a praxis that views preaching with clairvoyant eyes for listeners’ concrete experiences. I discovered that preaching offers the opportunity to approach disorienting dilemmas that evoke intriguing self-reflection to answer the question: Where do we go from here? A homiletical praxeology, therefore, also has to deal with the experiences of listeners. To address this research question, the notion of critical correlation offers a methodological framework for operating within. It allows the researcher to set up a dialogue between questions related to the homiletical praxis on the one hand, and perspectives that come forth in reflecting the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic on the other. A second phase involves providing a theological perspective on God who can perform new deeds amidst the unusual. Deliberating on this will pave the way for a homiletical theory at the end of the article.
Contribution: This article aims to engage with the basic tenet of preaching, viewed from a Reformational paradigm and wants to contribute towards a better understanding of a homiletical praxeology within a post-pandemic world.
Practical Theology, Practical religion. The Christian life
Daryn Joy Go, Natalee Hung, Hannah Ferrolino
et al.
National lockdowns and social distancing measures enforced in response to COVID-19 have forced many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) serving in low- and middle-income countries to suspend their operations. While low-income families continue to suffer from hunger and poverty, community quarantine restrictions additionally isolated them from town centers where healthcare, education, food, supplies, and livelihood opportunities are usually accessed. International Care Ministries (ICM) is a Philippine-based NGO that runs a poverty-alleviation program targeted towards extreme low-income households. As we re-evaluated how we may continue to effectively minister and serve our communities despite lockdown measures, we identified two priorities: (1) to serve people’s physical needs by providing food and access to healthcare and (2) to serve people’s spiritual needs through spiritual nourishment and community. In this field report, we describe how ICM was able to identify and use social network platforms as an alternative to continue both service delivery and spiritual feeding remotely. We hope this example may encourage other development NGOs to persevere as we all continue to seek ways to adapt to these extraordinary and seemingly ever-changing circumstances.
Public aspects of medicine, Practical religion. The Christian life
Etty Hillesum, known as the adult Anne Frank, diarised her emotional and intellectual journey from 09 March 1941 to 15 September 1943, a final postcard thrown from the train en route to Auschwitz from Westerbork transit camp. Her diarising initially aided her therapeutically to analyse her personal feelings rationally. But the changing circumstances in the Netherlands, due to the Nazi occupation in addition to her own turmoil, turned her diarising into a highly personal inner conversation. She initially addressed herself. As her conversation deepened, it took on the semblance of a two-way conversation. Hillesum eventually concluded that she was conversing with God. Her life became more meaningful as she adopted a New Testament servant mentality and attitude of forgiveness towards her Nazi enemies. It was this attitude that compelled her to serve the younger women of Westerbork transit camp, but also to tell them of God’s power in forgiveness and hope for the future. This study will attempt to show Hillesum’s place within Reformed theological thinking. This is a necessary exercise, as many people do not only drift away from the church, but do not turn to it or to Christian ministers for pastoral assistance in matters of the spirit.
Practical Theology, Practical religion. The Christian life
This article traces how prosperity theology is a corruption of a Calvinist idea describing the meaning and purpose of earthly prosperity, including good health, as a sign of God’s blessing. It has been secularized to the point where Americans often think that those who suffer are somehow ultimately, or exclusively, responsible for their situation in life. I then argue how this idea served as a catalyst for the dangerous idea of “positive thinking.” This idea implies, and sometimes makes explicit, that those who are suffering somehow deserve their situation and, therefore, must earn healing with faith in God expressed through the correct positive intellectual, emotional, and spiritual disposition. I conclude with a retrieval of the Latin American theology of accompaniment to refresh a Catholic understanding of suffering which can serve as a rebuttal to the negative influence of positive thinking and prosperity theology.
Hadi Abdullah, Washington Garcia, Christian Peeters
et al.
Voice Processing Systems (VPSes), now widely deployed, have been made significantly more accurate through the application of recent advances in machine learning. However, adversarial machine learning has similarly advanced and has been used to demonstrate that VPSes are vulnerable to the injection of hidden commands - audio obscured by noise that is correctly recognized by a VPS but not by human beings. Such attacks, though, are often highly dependent on white-box knowledge of a specific machine learning model and limited to specific microphones and speakers, making their use across different acoustic hardware platforms (and thus their practicality) limited. In this paper, we break these dependencies and make hidden command attacks more practical through model-agnostic (blackbox) attacks, which exploit knowledge of the signal processing algorithms commonly used by VPSes to generate the data fed into machine learning systems. Specifically, we exploit the fact that multiple source audio samples have similar feature vectors when transformed by acoustic feature extraction algorithms (e.g., FFTs). We develop four classes of perturbations that create unintelligible audio and test them against 12 machine learning models, including 7 proprietary models (e.g., Google Speech API, Bing Speech API, IBM Speech API, Azure Speaker API, etc), and demonstrate successful attacks against all targets. Moreover, we successfully use our maliciously generated audio samples in multiple hardware configurations, demonstrating effectiveness across both models and real systems. In so doing, we demonstrate that domain-specific knowledge of audio signal processing represents a practical means of generating successful hidden voice command attacks.