In this work the impact of the Internet culture on standard mainstream societies has been analyzed. After analytically establishing the fact that the Net can be viewed as a pan-societal superstructure which supports its own distinct culture, an ethnographic analysis is proveded to find out the key aspects of this culture. The elements of this culture which have an empowering impacts on the stan...

Focusing on the protection of privacy and nonpublicity of special networks, the CPN model is extended to PCPN by the protocol factor and the formal model. The FPCPN (Formal Protocol Colored Petri Net) is presented to analyze the operation mechanism of protocols. It is introduced by four steps, such as the whole structure, the network element conversion, the conditions of transition triggers/exe...

Many governments use price and tax subsidization to meet social protection objectives in lieu of, or in addition to, direct income transfers. Such subsidies may be perceived as influencing behavior to further other socially desirable policies. For example, the price response induced by lowering the price of schooling or key food items will both lower the cost of living for the beneficiaries and...

The ants are extraordinary in having evolved many lineages that exploit closely related ant societies as social parasites, but social parasitism by distantly related ants is rare. Here we document the interaction dynamics among a Sericomyrmex fungus-growing ant host, a permanently associated parasitic guest ant of the genus Megalomyrmex, and a raiding agro-predator of the genus Gnamptogenys. We...

A simple model of an open exchange economy with two commodities is used to investigate the relative merits of small and large reforms: reforms are represented as movements in the relative price of the two commodities, achieved by tightening or relaxing quotas. Three approaches, based on majority voting, the costs of compensation, and social welfare, are used to compare the merits of small and l...

BACKGROUND Decision curve analysis has been introduced as a method to evaluate prediction models in terms of their clinical consequences if used for a binary classification of subjects into a group who should and into a group who should not be treated. The key concept for this type of evaluation is the "net benefit", a concept borrowed from utility theory. METHODS We recall the foundations of...