In 2011, the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research launched a set of educational opportunities to facilitate and enhance the dissemination of TCPS 2, the 2nd edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, which guides Canadian research ethics. Three educational modalities were implemented to aid participants in developing or refining their ethical understanding and practice: Regional Workshops, which brought together diverse disciplinary perspectives; the CORE tutorial, which enabled individuals to discover the various aspects and (...) applications of the Policy; and Webinars, which provided participants with the opportunity to explore deeper dimensions of research ethics. This article reports on the findings of a national program evaluation team which measured the effectiveness of the educational program and provided recommendations for future opportunities. (shrink)

In this paper, the nonsmooth compound transmission control protocol with the gentle random early detection system with the state-dependent round-trip delay is investigated in detail. Uniqueness of the positive equilibrium is proved firstly. Then, the closed approximate periodic solutions in this state-dependent delayed nonsmooth compound TCP with the GRED model are obtained by employing the harmonic balance and alternating frequency/time domain method. Then, we compare the results generated by numerical simulations with those of the closed approximate expressions obtained by HB-AFT. (...) It indicates that HB-AFT is simple, correct, and powerful for state-dependent delayed nonsmooth dynamical systems. Finally, we find the complicated dynamic: chaos. It is a grazing chaos with a hybrid property, i.e., where usually w oscillates at a very low frequency and q oscillates at a very high frequency. And, the route to chaos is a very rare route, i.e., the instantaneous and local transition of stable equilibrium to chaos. So, to the end of stability and good performance, we should adjust the parameters carefully to avoid the periodic and chaotic oscillations. (shrink)

Despite advancements in human research ethics and the growing significance of Research Ethics Board (REB) members, educational opportunities specifically tailored to their needs remain lacking in many countries. In response to this gap, our research aims to understand the demographics, needs, and preferences for educational opportunities of REB members in Canada. We conducted a survey that found REB demographics to be diverse and have different perceptions of their roles on topics such as the evaluation of the scientific merit of studies (...) and responsibilities to stakeholders. We found that REB members in general prefer online tutorials and webinars for their education. Educators interested in facilitating the development of future training programs should consider the needs and preferences of REB members outlined in this publication. (shrink)

Flower symmetry is considered a morphological novelty that contributed significantly to the rapid radiation of the angiosperms, which already puzzled Charles Darwin and prompted him to name this phenomenon an ‘abominable mystery’. In 2009, the bicentenary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, ‘On the Origin of Species’, this question can now be more satisfactorily readdressed. Understanding the molecular control of monosymmetry formation in the model species Antirrhinum opened the path for comparative studies (...) with non‐model species revealing modifications of this trait. TCP transcription factors, named after TEOSINTE BRANCHED 1 in maize, CYCLOIDEA in snapdragon and PCF in rice, control flower monosymmetry development and contributed to establishing this trait several times independently in higher angiosperms. The joint advances in evolutionary and developmental plant research, combined in the novel research field named Evo/Devo, aim at elucidating the molecular mechanisms and strategies to unravel the mystery of how this diversity has been generated. (shrink)

In a recent paper (Linguistics and Philosophy 23, 4, June 2000), Jason Stanley argues that there are no `unarticulated constituents', contrary to what advocates of Truth-conditional pragmatics (TCP) have claimed. All truth-conditional effects of context can be traced to logical form, he says. In this paper I maintain that there are unarticulated constituents, and I defend TCP. Stanley's argument exploits the fact that the alleged unarticulated constituents can be `bound', that is, they can be made to vary with the values (...) introduced by operators in the sentence. I show that Stanley's argument rests on a fallacy, and I provide alternative analyses of the data. (shrink)

The special composition question, which asks under which conditions objects compose a further object, establishes a central debate in modern metaphysics. Recent successes of inductive metaphysics, which studies the implications of the natural sciences for metaphysical problems, suggest that insights into the SCQ can be gained by investigating the physics of composite systems. In this work, I show that the minus first law of thermodynamics, which is concerned with the approach to equilibrium, leads to a new approach to the SCQ, (...) the thermodynamic composition principle : Multiple systems in thermal contact compose a single system. This principle, which is justified based on a systematic classification of possible mereological models for thermodynamic systems, might form the basis of an inductive argument for universalism. A formal analysis of the TCP is provided on the basis of mereotopology, which is a combination of mereology and topology. Here, “thermal contact” can be analyzed using the mereotopological predicate “self-connectedness”. Self-connectedness has to be defined in terms of mereological sums to ensure that scattered objects cannot be self-connected. (shrink)

In this dissertation, we shall investigate whether Tennant's criterion for paradoxicality(TCP) can be a correct criterion for genuine paradoxes and whether the requirement of a normal derivation(RND) can be a proof-theoretic solution to the paradoxes. Tennant’s criterion has two types of counterexamples. The one is a case which raises the problem of overgeneration that TCP makes a paradoxical derivation non-paradoxical. The other is one which generates the problem of undergeneration that TCP renders a non-paradoxical derivation paradoxical. Chapter 2 deals with (...) the problem of undergeneration and Chapter 3 concerns the problem of overgeneration. Chapter 2 discusses that Tenant’s diagnosis of the counterexample which applies CR−rule and causes the undergeneration problem is not correct and presents a solution to the problem of undergeneration. Chapter 3 argues that Tennant’s diagnosis of the counterexample raising the overgeneration problem is wrong and provides a solution to the problem. Finally, Chapter 4 addresses what should be explicated in order for RND to be a proof-theoretic solution to the paradoxes. (shrink)

The Second World War and its associated political events of a national and global scale brought new circumstances, which was considerably influenced the development processes of Tehran. During World War II, Iran hoped that Washington would keep Britain and the Soviet Union from seizing control of the country’s oil fields. In 1951 and 1952 Truman worked with Iranian Prime Minister, though unsuccessfully, to regain some of those lost oil rights for Iran. By the late 1950s and President Kennedy’s presidency, he (...) used aid as leverage for social reform. During the early years of 1960s, the Kennedy Administration was urging its allies in the third world to carry out necessary reforms in order to prevent popular discontent and enhance the dominant ideology of ‘modernism’. In 1968, a major piece of legislation, the Urban Development and Renewal Act, enabled the municipality to implement Tehran’s Comprehensive Plan (TCP 1968), which integrated all the elements of a 1960s’ American city such as the separation of functions, highways, suburbs, shopping centers and housing area. The export of these American cities principles can only be understood from the background of the Cold War period, in which the east and west were both competing for cultural colonization of Middle Eastern strategically important cities like Tehran. During this period, the new developments supported by the oil boom of 1970s, were built in different forms to constitute an expanding metropolis. In 1974, the second “International Congress of Architecture” with the theme of “Toward a Quality of Life” held at Persepolis and brought together all leading world architects and planners to review Iran’s progress in its professional response to the challenges posed by increasing oil revenues. This research aims to represent the export of planning as a political means of cultural colonization of the Third World during the cold war period. (shrink)

The Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans was first developed to establish a standard of practice in research ethics by the three federal agencies responsible for funding institutional research in Canada: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In 2010, a second edition of the policy, known as the TCPS 2, was released with updated information and expanded coverage of research ethics issues. According to the (...) TCPS 2, the Agencies’ mandate is “to promote research that is conducted according to the highest ethical standards,” and the TCPS 2 serves as a benchmark for this with respect for human dignity as its underlying value. Research institutions receiving Agency funding are to comply with this policy statement by forming Research Ethics Boards to review all research involving human participants. The intention behind this review requirement is to provide a proportionate assessment of the benefit-to-risk ratio of the research, and in that process, to safeguard “respect for persons”, express a “concern for welfare”, and uphold “justice”. Research may not proceed until ethics approval is granted by an institution’s REB. The current study evaluates REB members’ perspectives on their knowledge of research ethics, and juxtaposes these perceptions with those of researchers. Specifically, we are interested in the extent to which REB members with less experience read the TCPS 2, and whether those with less experience have decreased confidence in their ethics knowledge. (shrink)

In an Internet of Things (IoT) environment, IoT devices are typically connected through different network media types such as mobile, wireless and wired networks. Due to the pervasive nature of such devices, they are a potential evidence source in both civil litigation and criminal investigations. It is, however, challenging to identify and acquire forensic artefacts from a broad range of devices, which have varying storage and communication capabilities. Hence, in this paper, we first propose an IoT network architecture for the (...) forensic purpose that uses machine learning algorithms to autonomously detect IoT devices. Then we posit the importance of focusing on the links between different IoT devices (e.g. whether one device is controlled or can be accessed from another device in the system), and design an approach to do so. Specifically, our approach adopts a graph for modelling IoT communications’ message flows to facilitate the identification of correlated network traffic based on the direction of the network and the associated attributes. To demonstrate how such an approach can be deployed in practice, we provide a proof of concept using two IoT controllers to generate 480 commands for controlling two IoT devices in a smart home environment and achieve an accuracy rate of 98.3% for detecting the links between devices. We also evaluate the proposed autonomous discovering of IoT devices and their activities in a TCP network by using real-world measurements from a public dataset of a popular off-the-shelf smart home deployed in two different locations. We selected 39 out of 81 different IoT devices for this evaluation. (shrink)

Ns2 is an open-source communications network simulator primarily used in research and teaching. Ns2 provides substantial support for simulation of TCP, routing, and multicast protocols over wired and wireless networks. Although Ns2 is a widely used powerful simulator, it lacks a way to measure networks that are used to assess reliability and performance metrics and it does not analyse the trace files it produces. The data obtained from the simulations are not straightforward to analyse. Ns2 is still unable to provide (...) any data analysis statistics or graphics as requested. Moreover, the analysis of the Ns2 trace file using any software scripts requires further steps by a developer to do data processing and then produce graphical outputs. Lack of standardisation of tools means that results from different users may not be strictly comparable. There are alternative tools; however, most of them are not standalone applications, requiring some additional libraries. Also, they lack a user-friendly interface. This article presents the architecture and development considerations for the NsGTFA tool, which intends to simplify the management and enable the statistical analysis of trace files generated during network simulations. NsGTFA runs under Windows and has a friendly graphical user interface. This tool is a very fast standalone application implemented in VC++, taking as input an Ns2 trace file. It can output two-dimensional and 3D graphs or data sets, whatever the trace file format. It is also possible to specify the output of standard network performance metrics. NsGTFA satisfies most user needs. There is no complex installation process, and no external libraries are needed. (shrink)

The study considers the development of methods for detecting anomalous network connections based on hybridization of computational intelligence methods. An analysis of approaches to detecting anomalies and abuses in computer networks. In the framework of this analysis, a classification of methods for detecting network attacks is proposed. The main results are reduced to the construction of multi-class models that increase the efficiency of the attack detection system, and can be used to build systems for classifying network parameters during the attack. (...) A model of an artificial immune system based on an evolutionary approach, an algorithm for genetic-competitive learning of the Kohonen network and a method of hierarchical hybridization of binary classifiers with the addition to the detection of anomalous network connections have been developed. The architecture of the network distributed attack detection system has been developed. The architecture of the attack detection system is two-tier: the first level provides the primary analysis of individual packets and network connections using signature analysis, the second level processes the processing of aggregate network data streams using adaptive classifiers. A signature analysis was performed to study network performance based on the Aho-Korasik and Boyer-Moore algorithms and their improved analogues were implemented using OpenMP and CUDA technologies. The architecture is presented and the main points of operation of the network attack generator are shown. A system for generating network attacks has been developed. This system consists of two components: an asynchronous transparent proxy server for TCP sessions and a frontend interface for a network attack generator. The results of the experiments confirmed that the functional and non-functional requirements, as well as the requirements for computing intelligent systems, are met for the developed attack detection system. (shrink)

Bernhard and Young (Journal of Academic Ethics, 7, 175-191, 2009) allege that a myth of confidentiality plagues research in North America because of the absence of statute-based legal protections and the requirements of some REBs to limit confidentiality to the extent permitted by law. In this commentary we describe statute-based protections for research confidentiality available in the United States, clarify the legal situation regarding research confidentiality in Canada, and explain that REBs that require confidentiality to be limited by law are (...) imposing a doctrine that is not required by the TCPS and may violate researchers’ academic freedom. The paper laments how excessive REB risk aversion and inaction by the granting agency Presidents has created a situation where some REBs are encouraging researchers to download research risks to research participants and forcing researchers to choose between exposing themselves to the prospect of going to jail to protect confidentiality, watering down their research objectives, or conducting vanilla research rather than engaging in controversial and/or sensitive areas of study. The paper urges the granting agency Presidents to seek legislative change to protect research participants who provide information that could cause them harm if their identity were to be revealed. (shrink)

Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans mandates that all research involving human subjects be reviewed and approved by a research ethics board . We have little evidence on how researchers are dealing with this requirement in multisite studies, which involve more than one REB. We retrospectively examined 22 REB submissions for two minimal-risk, multisite studies in leading Canadian institutions. Most REBs granted expedited review to the studies, while one declared the application to be exempt from review. (...) Time between submission and approval ranged greatly, from four to 546 days. We received a total of 155 REB queries for changes and clarifications, most of which asked for further information, clarification, or additional documents. Less than a third of the REB queries were requests for specific changes, and a vast majority had a very limited impact on the research projects. Institutions also varied broadly in their description of what was required of local principal investigators. We conclude that the organizational and practical challenges these results imply could deter researchers from embarking on multisite research projects, and that recently proposed changes to the TCPS will not solve these problems. (shrink)

Coordination of a power system with the phasor measurement devices in real time on the load and generation sides is carried out within the context of smart grid studies. Power systems equipped with information systems in a smart grid pace with external security threats. Developing a smart grid which can resist against cyber threats is considered indispensable for the uninterrupted operation. In this study, a two-way secure communication methodology underpinned by a chaos-based encryption algorithm for PMU devices is proposed. The (...) proposed system uses the IEEE-14 busbar system on which the optimum PMU placement has been installed. The proposed hyperchaotic system-based encryption method is applied as a new security methodology among PMU devices. The success of results is evaluated by the completeness of data exchange, durations, the complexity of encryption-decryption processes, and strength of cryptography using a microcomputer-based implementation. The results show that the proposed microcomputer-based encryption algorithms can be directly embedded as encryption hardware units into PMU and PDC devices which have very fast signal processing capabilities taking into considerations the acceptable delay time for power system protection and measuring applications and quality metering applications which is 2 ms and 10 ms, respectively. While proposed algorithms can be used in TCP or UDP over IP-based IEEE C37.118, IEC 61850, and IEC 61850-90-5 communication frameworks, they can also be embedded into electronic cards, smartcards, or smart tokens which are utilized for authentication among smart grid components. (shrink)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine institutional influences on the customer service and complaints handling practices of the Australian Internet industry. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a qualitative research methodology using semi-structured interview as a research method. The study was informed by constructivist/interpretive research paradigm approaches to knowledge. Eleven senior executives from key Internet industry stakeholder organizations were interviewed. Findings – Using the neo-institutional theory lens, this study found that the institutional forces played a pivotal role (...) in bringing all Internet industry stakeholders together to address CS/CH shortcomings in the old Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code 2007. This led to significant changes to the CS/CH practices detailed in the revised TCP Code 2012. The study findings revealed that frequent and fateful collaborations between central institutional actors have led to the emergence of organizational fields. The actors identified in the emerging organizational fields actively influence the CS/CH practices and the subsequent implementation of the practices in vLISPs. Research limitations/implications – The study focused on the functional aspects of service quality. Technical aspects of SQ is equally important, and future research needs to consider both aspects of SQ when assessing overall performance of vLISPs. Practical implications – The study findings encourage vLISP managers to continue collaboration with external stakeholders and develop customer-friendly practices that deliver desirable CS/CH outcomes. Social implications – The study findings revealed that when all vLISP industry stakeholders collaborate with each other on a focal issue, there is noticeable progress towards development of CS practices that will contribute to a better CS experience. Originality/value – An evidence-based approach was used towards understanding and explaining how and why institutional actors of technology-based service organizations act together. A significant contribution arising from this study is the identification and discussion of emerging organizational fields comprising the central actors in the Internet industry. These emerging organizational fields have the potential to develop into mature organizational fields and inform future CS/CH practices and consumer protection policies in the Australian Internet industry. (shrink)

Robyn Carston and I share a general methodological position which I call ‘Truth-Conditional Pragmatics' (TCP). TCP is the view that the effects of context on truth-conditional content need not be traceable to the linguistic material in the uttered sentence. Some effects of context on truth-conditional content are due to the linguistic material (e.g. to context-sensitive words or morphemes which trigger the search for contextual values), but others result from ‘free' pragmatic processes. Free pragmatic processes take place not because the linguistic (...) material demands it, but because the utterance's content is not faithfully or wholly encoded in the uttered sentence, whose meaning requires adjustment or elaboration in order to determine an admissible content for the speaker's utterance. To make room for these processes, I will argue, we need to distinguish the logical form of an utterance, in the standard sense, and its modified logical form, affected by free pragmatic processes. This distinction will be elaborated and I will show that it can be interpreted in three different ways. (shrink)

This paper is a voice in the ongoing discussion on the source and properties of pragmatic inference that contributes to the representation of discourse meaning. I start off from the contextualist standpoint of truth-conditional pragmatics and develop a proposal of representations of utterance meaning, the so-called merger representations, that incorporate the output of pragmatic inference. The move from TCP to pragmatics-rich semantics of acts of communication is facilitated by rethinking the compositionality of meaning and predicating compositionality of such pragmatics-rich structures. (...) I argue that the advantage of 'semanticizing' the output of pragmatic sources of meaning is that we can relax the view on compositionality of meaning and offer an algorithm of the interaction of such sources where the requirement of compositionality is imposed on the output of the interaction rather than on the output of the syntactic processing of the sentence. This proposal is applied to belief reports for which it offers representations of their various readings. (shrink)

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia which is estimated to impact 350,000 people over 65 years of age in Canada. The lack of effective treatment and the growing number of people who are expected to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the near future are compelling reasons why continued research is in this area is necessary. With additional research, there needs to be greater recognition of the complexity of seeking ongoing informed consent from those with Alzheimer’s disease. (...) This complexity is because the impairment of memory and cognitive ability does not diminish in a linear manner, but rather fluctuates between periods of impairment and relatively normal cognitive lucidness. There is limited discussion in the guidelines of those progressing from early stages of Alzheimer’s disease who have intermittent cognitive function. Guidelines to research and Research Ethics Boards require further development to facilitate researcher including those with Alzheimer’s disease while protecting this growing pool of potential participants. (shrink)