Since at least 2002, practitioners and academics have differentiated individuals who fixate on (and communicate with) a single target from individuals who exhibit “dispersion.” Early research has ...been interpreted to suggest that nonexclusive contact implies an “accelerated risk for violence.” To date, there have been no published studies which pointedly test the hypothesis that dispersion is positively correlated with the likelihood of an escalation or “approach.” Three threat assessment professionals working for Inter-Con Security clients conducted a retrospective study of 738 individuals in their collective investigative records. By evaluating whether these participants engaged in a form of dispersion, and whether they subsequently escalated against a target, their study seeks to answer first, whether there is a statistically significant relationship, and second, to determine the strength of the relationship between approach behavior and each form of dispersion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
In order to decide a safe and reliable trajectory for autonomous driving vehicles, the threat of surrounding vehicles need to be assessed quantitatively and consider the potential risk. This paper ...proposes a novel integrated threat assessment algorithm for the decision-making system. First, the motion of the surrounding vehicle is predicted probabilistic based on the interact multiple model (IMM) to consider the potential threat. Then, we build an integrated threat assessment function to assess the threat in each state quantitatively and objectively, which synthesizes the existing time-to-collision (TTC), time-headway (TH), and the original proposed time-to-front (TTF). Based on this, the decision-making system is established according to the Markov decision process (MDP) and the feedback value of each decision sequence is calculated by the integrated threat assessment function, thus the safest trajectory for the current moment can be determined by optimal search. Finally, the decision-making system is verified in the overtaking and cut-in scenario by Carsim and Simulink co-simulation. The results show that the proposed threat assessment algorithm for the decision-making system can help autonomous vehicles decide a safe trajectory in real-time and maintain good maneuverability.
The new extinction risk assessments of hornwort and liverwort species of Serbia have been completed. Based on the available data, 40% of Serbian liverwort flora is under threat (status 2024). ...Additionally, 11% of Serbian liverwort flora is considered to be Data Deficient (DD) 11% Near Threatened (NT). These findings clearly indicate the urgent need for field investigation and species biology research in order to define the major threats and adequate conservation measures.
The Random Permutation Set (RPS) is a newly proposed type of set. An RPS takes the permutation of a certain set into consideration and can be regarded as a generalization of evidence theory. Since ...distance is an important metric, an immediate question which arises is how to calculate the distance between RPSs. To address this problem, the distance between RPSs is first presented in this paper. Based on a geometrical interpretation of RPS, the distance between RPSs is measured by considering the similarity between their permutation sets, both in the number and order of elements. Numerical examples demonstrate the behavior of the proposed RPS distance. Thereafter, based on the proposed RPS distance, a Data-Driven Reliability Determination (DDRD) algorithm is put forth and applied in threat assessment. The experimental results show that the proposed DDRD algorithm can effectively identify the fusion order of RPSs. The corresponding fusion result is in agreement with theoretical predictions and has the highest accuracy of identification.
Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation are amongst the major drivers of biodiversity loss globally. Although habitat fragmentation poses additional threats to biodiversity beyond habitat loss alone, ...the IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) does not provide guidance on how to assess these threats. This study develops an approach for incorporating habitat fragmentation into the RLE threat assessment and investigates additional insights such an analysis could provide beyond the analysis of distribution trends. This is achieved by quantifying RLE criteria A and B (distribution reduction, restricted distribution and decline) and comparing outcomes with indices of habitat fragmentation (core area, Largest Patch Index, Patch Cohesion Index and Aggregation Index) in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. Results revealed that much of the Cape Floristic Region is severely threatened by both landscape transformation and habitat fragmentation, but that treating the habitat fragmentation indices as additional RLE criteria did not alter the ecosystem threat assessment outcomes. Whilst this suggests that the existing RLE criteria implicitly account for habitat fragmentation, the relationship between fragmentation indices and RLE criteria were weak and highly variable in some cases, indicating that the RLE criteria alone do not sufficiently account for the threat of habitat fragmentation. Supplementing the RLE with habitat fragmentation measures highlights additional, unique information on threats to ecosystems. This simple approach has the potential to assist in setting conservation priorities and management goals, particularly in fragmented ecosystems.
Habitat fragmentation poses additional threats to biodiversity, beyond those posed by habitat loss alone. We conduct an ecosystem threat assessment using the IUCN's Red List for Ecosystems. We incorporate habitat fragmentation measures in order to test whether the RLE accounts for habitat fragmentation threats. Findings show habitat fragmentation is accounted for by the RLE and that incorporating habitat fragmentation measures provides additional information.
Large-scale linguistic analyses are increasingly applied to the study of extremism, terrorism, and other threats of violence. At the same time, practitioners working in the field of counterterrorism ...and security are confronted with large-scale linguistic data, and may benefit from computational methods. This article highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with applying computational linguistics in the domain of threat assessment. Four current issues are identified, namely (1) the data problem, (2) the utopia of predicting violence, (3) the base rate fallacy, and (4) the danger of closed-sourced tools. These challenges are translated into a checklist of questions that should be asked by policymakers and practitioners who (intend to) make use of tools that leverage computational linguistics for threat assessment. The 'VISOR-P' checklist can be used to evaluate such tools through their Validity, Indicators, Scientific Quality, Openness, Relevance and Performance. Finally, some suggestions are outlined for the furtherance of the computational linguistic threat assessment field.
This is an introduction to the special issue “Cultural Responsiveness in Threat Assessment.” The articles within this special section are meant to be the beginning of a larger conversation within the ...Journal of Threat Assessment and Management and the field as a whole. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Establishing and maintaining protected areas (PAs) are key tools for biodiversity conservation. However, this approach is insufficient for many species, particularly those that are wide-ranging and ...sparse. The cheetah Acinonyx jubatus exemplifies such a species and faces extreme challenges to its survival. Here, we show that the global population is estimated at ∼7,100 individuals and confined to 9% of its historical distributional range. However, the majority of current range (77%) occurs outside of PAs, where the species faces multiple threats. Scenario modeling shows that, where growth rates are suppressed outside PAs, extinction rates increase rapidly as the proportion of population protected declines. Sensitivity analysis shows that growth rates within PAs have to be high if they are to compensate for declines outside. Susceptibility of cheetah to rapid decline is evidenced by recent rapid contraction in range, supporting an uplisting of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List threat assessment to endangered. Our results are applicable to other protection-reliant species, which may be subject to systematic underestimation of threat when there is insufficient information outside PAs. Ultimately, conserving many of these species necessitates a paradigm shift in conservation toward a holistic approach that incentivizes protection and promotes sustainable human–wildlife coexistence across large multiple-use landscapes.
Target threat assessment aims to rank targets threat based on their attributes and state information, which provide decision support for subsequent military decisions, e.g. weapon-target optimal ...assignment. Most existing threat assessment methods can only obtain ranking results, decision-makers usually need to subjectively choose priority targets to attack or interfere based on the preset threat level and ordering results, which does not meet the requirements of complex battlefield situation and uncertain information processing. A method is urgently needed, which can objectively produce threat classification results and automatically provide priority targets for combat. Therefore, we propose a novel target threat assessment method based on three-way decisions under intuitionistic fuzzy multi-attribute decision making environment. The core parts are the conditional probability of each target is estimated by intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS and the decision thresholds of each target are constructed by intuitionistic fuzzy evaluation values. The results of two numerical examples show that the proposed method can effectively deal with dynamic uncertain situation information, turn the traditional ranking results of two-way decisions to the objective classification results of three-way decisions and can flexibly reflect the acquisition of situation information by setting the risk avoidance coefficient.
•The proposed method is based on three-way decisions under IFMADM environment.•The proposed method can obtain threat classifications results of targets.•The conditional probability is estimated by intuitionistic fuzzy TOPSIS.•The decision thresholds are calculated by intuitionistic fuzzy evaluation values.
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