Community Networks Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research

A characterization of extreme flows in capacitated networks is obtained. This property is useful to determine optimal policies for specially structured problems that arise in the context of production planning and inventory control. Nous allons ^tablir une propriety des flots extrtoaux dans un r&eau dont les arcs ont des capacit^s finies. Cette propri^t^ nous permettra d'^tablir la politique optimale de gestion d'un entrep6t d'une part et d'un systfeme de production et de stockage d'autre part.

2025, Evaluation matters

Mount Ruapehu, locally known as Matua Te Mana, is the metaphorical ancestor of Māori living around the rural community of Raetihi. Matua Te Mana has a significant presence and is pivotal to the health and wellbeing of local iwi. Whānau are leading Te Puāwai o Te Ahi Kaa innovation project, based at Te Puke Marae, in partnership with Te Oranganui. The latter is the Whanganui regional Māori health and social services provider. This Ministry of Health-funded, 3-year, Whānau Ora-focused and innovative model of care seeks to enhance the wellbeing of whānau who maintain Te Puke Marae's ahi kā. Whakauae Research for Māori Health and Development is evaluating the project alongside the project partners. Using a kaupapa Māori approach to evaluation, this article explores how Whakauae has contributed to project outcomes being achieved. A key challenge to the successful conduct of the evaluation was Whakauae's lack of an immediately available senior Māori lead evaluator. This challenge, and the strategies adopted to address it, are explored by including a strong focus on both internal and external evaluation capability building. Capability building spanned internal "Outside the box but kinda in the box": Evaluating with a rural Māori community

2025, Asian Journal of Advanced Research and Reports

Ethiopian livestock population has reached about 52 million cattle, 33 million Sheep, 30 million goats and 2.5 million camels. The livestock sub-sector contributes an estimated 12% of the total and over 45% to the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). However, the benefits derived from livestock are far below the existing potential. While many factors are attributable to the problem, livestock diseases remain the most important constraint to the development of the subsector. This is because livestock diseases are distributed across all agroecological zones of the country. In addition, the Ethiopian Government is building two standard quarantine stations in strategic locations closer to the seaports of Djibouti and Berbera. APHRD is also introducing hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) systems in two model abattoirs, namely, Mojo Modern and Luna. The two export abattoirs are expected to be accredited for HACCP at international levels.

2025

This paper presents a distributed surveillance system to improve safety and security in public transport environments such as metropolitan railways, airports etc. The system is constructed by a set of modules that provide additional intelligence to detect potentially dangerous situations and provide more timely prevention and management of events. These modules include CCTV video processing, audio detection, mobile smart cards, a range of other possible sensors and a supervisory front-end. The system design uses ideas from control engineering and distributed network communication resulting in a CORBA based architecture and XML messaging. The system components have been implemented and integrated in two major successful trials in metropolitan railway stations (London and Paris) and at Newcastle International Airport, as part of a major EU-funded project PRISMATICA ("PRo-active Integrated systems for Security Management by Technological, Institutional and Communication Assistance").

2025, Proceedings - IEEE INFOCOM

We propose a mechanism that incorporates network coding into TCP with only minor changes to the protocol stack, thereby allowing incremental deployment. In our scheme, the source transmits random linear combinations of packets currently in the congestion window. At the heart of our scheme is a new interpretation of ACKs -the sink acknowledges every degree of freedom (i.e., a linear combination that reveals one unit of new information) even if it does not reveal an original packet immediately. Such ACKs enable a TCP-compatible sliding-window approach to network coding. Our scheme has the nice property that packet losses are essentially masked from the congestion control algorithm. Our algorithm therefore reacts to packet drops in a smooth manner, resulting in a novel and effective approach for congestion control over networks involving lossy links such as wireless links. Our scheme also allows intermediate nodes to perform re-encoding of the data packets. Our simulations show that our algorithm, with or without re-encoding inside the network, achieves much higher throughput compared to TCP over lossy wireless links. We also establish the soundness and fairness properties of our algorithm. Finally, we present queuing analysis for the case of intermediate node re-encoding.

2025, Haematologica

based induction and maintenance in elderly newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients: updated results of the EMN01 randomized trial.

2025, ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review

The large capacity of optical fibers suggests that circuit-switching may become a more attractive switching method in future communication networks. We show, however, that under some reasonable assumptions the delays associated with circuit-switching make the technique inferior to packet-switching in a high-performance, distributed environment. A network design that demonstrates the feasibility of packet-switching in high-performance environment is also presented. This work was sponsored in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under contract N00039-86-K-0431, by the Digital Equipment Corporation, by ATT Information Systems and by Bell Northern Research.

2025, MILCOM 2008 - 2008 IEEE Military Communications Conference

Network-centric warfare is the operational concept that provides information sharing amongst a large array of networked nodes, including mobile platforms, sensors, space systems, weapons, munitions and war fighters. This information sharing enhances battle space situation awareness, which allows war fighters to get the right information at the right time and place, and to make the right decisions ahead ofadversaries. IPv6 is an enabling technology of network-centric operations and warfare for improving the scalability, robustness, agility, security, flexibility and manageability of military communication systems. The large address space, built-in stateless node discovery, Internet Protocol (IP) security (IPSec) and mobility functions offered in IPv6 will be an important enabler for information sharing and distribution amongst war fighters in a dynamic battle space environment.

2025

A polling system is a cyclic queueing model with multiple customer classes and a single server. Each customer class has its own queue (station). After the server switches to a station, it serves customers waiting at that station according to a specified service regime, eg, exhaustive, gated or globally gated. It then moves to the next station, following a strict cyclic order. These models have several application areas including computer and communication networks and multi-item production systems. For example, a Local Area ...

2025, American Journal of Preventive Medicine

2025, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Objective-To describe site capability and experience of the CHEER network (Creating Healthcare Excellence through Education and Research) to rapidly collect descriptive data on tinnitus and dizziness patients visiting participating CHEER sites. Study design-Prospective observational data collection study over 6 months. Setting-21 community otology and otolaryngology practices in the United States. Subjects and Methods-As proof of concept, a data collection study was developed for tinnitus and dizziness patients (presenting with or without associated migraine) through a collaborative effort of the CHEER principal investigator (PI) and co-PIs. The 9-page questionnaire included validated instruments and additional patient and physician-reported information. Information was captured electronically via REDCap by each site's CHEER research coordinator. Site initiation, data entry rates, and research coordinator feedback were also collected. Results-Of the 21 CHEER sites, 15 participated in the study. Nine sites entered a patient within the first 31 days of study initiation and all 15 sites were entering patients and corresponding clinical data within 72 days. During the 6-month study, 1044 patients were entered into the REDCap database. Research coordinator engagement was a major driver for success while time and resources were deterrents. Incentives included altruism, professional development, and future financial opportunities. The CHEER research network has significant capability and infrastructure to collect prospective data in a practice-based environment. Research coordinator engagement undergirds network success; however, future efforts will cultivate stronger collaboration of the coordinator and site PI. Central coordination of practice-based research through a hub and spoke concept can be successful.

2025, Community Mental Health Journal

Persons with mental illnesses use tobacco at significantly higher and heavier rates than the general population, and suffer greater tobacco-related morbidity and mortality. However, there are few existing tobacco cessation interventions for these individuals. This study examined two tobacco cessation interventions, a telephonic quitline intervention (counseling and nicotine replacement therapy) and a community-based group counseling intervention with adults currently receiving community mental health services. At 6-month follow-up, both groups demonstrated significantly reduced tobacco use, but participants who received both quitline services and the group counseling intervention were significantly more likely to have a 50% tobacco use reduction. Across groups, the overall intent-to-treat cessation rate was 7%. Tobacco dependence, depression symptoms, and psychotic symptoms decreased significantly for all treatment groups, while health and mental health functioning increased. Findings suggest that common community tobacco cessation services are effective for this population.

2025

There have been several approaches to the problem of provisioning traffic engineering between core network nodes in Internet Service Provider (ISP) networks. Such approaches aim to minimize network delay, increase capacity, and enhance security services between two core (relay) network nodes, an ingress node and an egress node. MATE (Multipath Adaptive Traffic Engineering) has been proposed for multipath adaptive traffic engineering between an ingress node (source) and an egress node (destination) to distribute the network flow among multiple disjoint paths. Its novel idea is to avoid network congestion and attacks that might exist in edge and node disjoint paths between two core network nodes. This paper aims to develop an adaptive, robust, and reliable traffic engineering scheme to improve performance and reliability of communication networks. This scheme will also provision Quality of Server (QoS) and protection of traffic engineering to maximize network efficiency. Specifically, S-MATE (secure MATE) is proposed to protect the network traffic between two core nodes (routers, switches, etc.) in a cloud network. S-MATE secures against a single link attack/failure by adding redundancy in one of the operational redundant paths between the sender and receiver nodes. It is also extended to secure against multiple attacked links. The proposed scheme can be applied to secure core networks such as optical and IP networks.

2025, IEEE Transactions on Communications

A simple cancellation-type compensator was built and subjected to limited testing in a terrestrial Link using dual polarization frequency reuse (DPFR) with 3.2 Gb/s in each polarization. A wideband complex (four quadrant) weighting circuit was developed which was capable of about 20 dB of cancellation at midband in a 3.4 GHz hand. Control of the weighting circuit was effected by use of two pilot tones near the band edges, from which magnitude and phase of cross-polarization interference (XPI) were estimated. Integration of the compensator, which operated at RF, had negligible impact on clear weather performance of the Link, and impacted receiver noise figure by 0.2-0.3 dB. In rain, cancellation of the order of 5-10 dB was observed at values of cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) as low as 10 dB. Postexperiment analysis of the data suggested that there had been errors in the estimation of the phase of the XPI. In spite of this, useful improvement in link performance was demonstrated.

2025, Pediatrics

Economic, environmental, and psychosocial needs are common and wide-ranging among families cared for in primary care settings. Still, pediatric care delivery models are not set up to systematically address these fundamental risks to health. We offer a roadmap to help structure primary care approaches to these needs through the development of comprehensive and effective collaborations between the primary care setting and community partners. We use Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a well-recognized conceptual model to organize, prioritize, and determine appropriate interventions that can be adapted to both small and large practices. Specifically, collaborations with community organizations expert in addressing issues commonly encountered in primary care centers can be designed and executed in a phased manner: (1) build the case for action through a family-centered risk assessment, (2) organize and prioritize risks and interventions, (3) develop and sustain interventions, and (4) ope...

2025, Journal of health care for the poor and underserved

Humanitarian workers in disaster settings report a dramatic increase in gender-based violence (GBV). This was true after the 2010 Haiti earthquake when women and girls lost the relative security of their homes and families. Researchers from the United States Virgin Islands and the United States mainland responded by collaborating with Haitian colleagues to develop GBV-focused strategies. To start, the research team performed a situational analysis to insure that the project was culturally, ethically, and logistically appropriate. The aim of this paper is to describe how the situational analysis framework helped the researchers effectively approach this community. Using post-earthquake Haiti as an exemplar, we identify key steps, barriers, and facilitators to undertaking a situational analysis. Barriers included logistics, infrastructure, language and community factors. Facilitators included established experts, organizations and agencies. Researchers in such circumstances need to be...

2025

IJCRT1892788 International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT) www.ijcrt.org 691 2LQR: A Way to Secure Private Information 1 Miss. Priyanka Kishor Trimbake, 2 Prof. Anuradha Narendra Nawathe ME , Associate Professor Department of Computer Engineering, 1 Amrutvahini college of Engineering, Sangamner, India ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract : Now a days, most of peoples are working with smart devices with the digital data for their regular survive in the world. The QR codes are use to store the digital data in form of black and white modules. QR codes are use in many applications related to security, academics, marketing etc. Now, peoples are well aware with this technology and they are use QR codes for various purpose. The QR codes are known at worldwide and getting popularity to use smart phones by the peoples. These are type of optics labels and only read by machines. The human-being can not a...

2025, 2004 IEEE 15th International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (IEEE Cat. No.04TH8754)

The access transport infrastructure of a cellular communications network represents a significant proportion of the total network cost. This prevents the network designer from over-dimensioning these links. In the case of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) access network, the use of a packet-switched technology (ATM for the first Release of the system) and the multi-service nature of the traffic to be carried rise the dimensioning process complexity. At this respect, we have developed a simulation tool for supporting the network designer when making dimensioning and physical topology decisions related to Iub interface (between each UMTS base station and its controller), which is the most critical interface of UMTS access network. This simulator is capable of modelling the presence of multiple traffic classes as well as the Iub transport protocol stack with enough accuracy; it offers a graphical configuration interface and has been designed to have a great flexibility when choosing topologies and ATM configurations.

2025

In this paper, we extend our previous work by including the decisions for connection-scheduling as part of the automated synthesis of embedded networks for networked control systems. We propose an automated approach for the synthesis of a cost-effective and correct-by-construction communication network for embedded applications subject to a set of end-to-end communication constraints of latency, bandwidth, and error-rate, the geometry constraints arising due to a desired geographical placement of the network, and a set of scheduling constraints. We also apply the proposed approach for network synthesis with scheduling to the synthesis of wireless networks for centralized and distributed state estimation in building automation and control. The proposed approach is general enough to be applicable to wired and wireless network synthesis.

2025, arXiv (Cornell University)

Mobility in wireless networks causes a major issue from the IP-addressing perspective. When a Mobile Node (MN) moves to another subnet, it will probably get assigned a new IP address. This causes a routing problem since the MN will not be reachable with its previous IP address known to the other communication party. Real time applications might suffer from connection drops, which is recognized as inconvenience in the currently used service, unless some solution is provided. An approach to maintain session continuity while traversing heterogeneous networks of different subnet addresses is proposed. Here, a cross-layer module is implemented in OMNeT++ with NAT functionality to provide a seamless handover. A proof of concept is also shown with analogy to the Mobile IPv6 protocol provided in INET.

2025, Global Journal on Technology

In recent years, the problem of designing a cooperative communication system to support a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is a major research challenge. In this paper, we present a time-effective approach for multiple UAVs conducting a collaborative search algorithm, this approach is targeted for sensing the disaster zone and finding the survivors in most efficient manner. In this respect, we consider a swarm of autonomous quad rotor UAVs that serve as a mobile sensors; communicate through a wireless link and equipped with a sensing devices. We aimed in this approach for the cooperative UAVs to coordinate their actions and behave as an intelligent array of sensors during the searching, detecting, and locating survivors. This approach has the ability to move the UAVs to the required location and finally achieving a cooperative decision making. A simulation of cooperative quadrotor UAVs is implemented using the Optimized Network Engineering Tool (OPNET). We develop a module for each UAV in which it is responsible for searching, detecting, and locating survivors. Moreover, this module is responsible for the wireless communication between the quad rotor UAVs. Performance of a cooperative decision making technique is observed when communication range and number of UAVs are varied. The results indicate that the number of quadrotor UAVs was found to have the greatest impact on the total time that is taken for detecting, and locating survivors. The findings demonstrate that the proposed approach can be used to search a large disaster zone in a very short time.

2025, 2010 International Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control (ICNSC)

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been used recently a lot in military applications as well as in civilian. It shows great advantages and importance in the search and rescue, real-time surveillance, reconnaissance operations, traffic monitoring, hazardous site inspection and range extension. Moreover, UAVs are suited for situations that are too dangerous for direct human monitoring. In general, UAVs have the potential to create an ad-hoc network and greatly reduce the hops from source to destination. However, the type of the mission and the capability of the UAV which are determined by its shape and construction causes a lot of networking issues. Most UAVs used in communication networks assumed the use of omni-directional antenna. In this paper, we considered a collection of UAVs that communicate through a wireless link as a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) using directional antenna. This technique offers tremendous advantages over that of using omni-directional antenna, although it requires an adaptive medium access control (MAC) to adapt the new antenna system as well as the constraint imposed by the UAV. To be more specific, we introduced a new mechanism that is called target information table to work with our new scheme during the switch from omni-directional to directional antenna. We made a comparison between the two techniques using optimized network engineering tool (OPNET). Our results show good improvement for end-to-end delay as well as throughput.

2025, Emerging Health Threats Journal

EAIDSNet) was formed in response to a growing frequency of cross-border malaria outbreaks in the 1990s and a growing recognition that fragmented disease interventions, coupled with weak laboratory capacity, were making it difficult to respond in a timely manner to the outbreaks of malaria and other infectious diseases. The East Africa Community (EAC) partner states, with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation, established EAIDSNet in 2000 to develop and strengthen the communication channels necessary for integrated cross-border disease surveillance and control efforts. The objective of this paper is to review the regional EAIDSNet initiative and highlight achievements and challenges in its implementation. Major accomplishments of EAIDSNet include influencing the establishment of a Department of Health within the EAC Secretariat to support a regional health agenda; successfully completing a regional field simulation exercise in pandemic influenza preparedness; and piloting a web-based portal for linking animal and human health disease surveillance. The strategic direction of EAIDSNet was shaped, in part, by lessons learned following a visit to the more established Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) regional network. Looking to the future, EAIDSNet is collaborating with the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC), EAC partner states, and the World Health Organization to implement the World Bank-funded East Africa Public Health Laboratory Networking Project (EAPHLNP). The network has also begun lobbying East African countries for funding to support EAIDSNet activities.

2025, Asian Journal of Research in Nursing and Health

The study investigated the factors influencing the uptake of HIV/AIDS services among children aged 0-10 years at Kalingalinga Clinic in Lusaka District, Zambia. Despite the availability of free HIV/AIDS services, the uptake among pediatric populations remains suboptimal. The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design and a mixed methods approach. A sample size composed of 218 respondents; caregivers and health care providers from Kalingalinga clinic who were selected using purposive and simple random sampling methods. Data were collected using Original Research Article

2025, Radio Science

This paper examines the seasonal duty cycle variation of meteor and nonmeteor propagation at 45 MHz on two high‐latitude links. Software techniques for automatic data processing and analysis of the data are discussed. It is shown that for large portions of the year nonmeteoric propagation, most likely sporadic E, is the dominant propagation mechanism. Consequently, protocols for an operational meteor scatter communication network must be designed to cope with a situation in which close to an entire network may be connected for long periods of time. System duty cycles at 45 MHz in excess of 20% are common during the summer months in the high‐latitude region.

2025, Journal of Lightwave Technology

Habib Fathallah (S'96), for photograph and biography, see p. 405 of the March 1999 issue of this JOURNAL. Leslie A. Rusch (S'91-M'94), for photograph and biography, see p. 405 of the March 1999 issue of this JOURNAL.

2025

We demonstrate an all-fiber fast optical frequency-hop code division multiple access (FFH-CDMA) for high bandwidth communications. Transmission rates of up to 1.6 Gb/s per user were achieved with an 8-wavelength multiple Bragg grating... more

2025, International Journal of Business and Management

In Bangladesh, micro credit programs have positive socioeconomic impact on the rural women borrowers. However, it is perceived that the micro credit programs help the rural women borrowers to survive only and do not help them to develop entrepreneurial capabilities. Hence, this paper aims at identifying the factors related to the development of entrepreneurship among the rural women borrowers through micro credit programs. A multivariate analysis technique like Factor Analysis was conducted to identify the entrepreneurship development related factors. Structural equation modeling was used to develop a model of micro credit program and the development of rural women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. Results show that the financial management skills and the group identity of the women borrowers have significant relationship with the development of rural women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. The experience from the parent's family of the borrowers and the option limit may also lead to the rural women borrowers to be entrepreneurial.

2025, Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies

The growing need of the driving public for accurate traffic information has spurred the deployment of large scale dedicated monitoring infrastructure systems, which mainly consist in the use of inductive loop detectors and video cameras. On-board electronic devices have been proposed as an alternative traffic sensing infrastructure, as they usually provide a cost-effective way to collect traffic data, leveraging existing communication infrastructure such as the cellular phone network. A traffic monitoring system based on GPS-enabled smartphones exploits the extensive coverage provided by the cellular network, the high accuracy in position and velocity measurements provided by GPS devices, and the existing infrastructure of the communication network. This article presents a field experiment nicknamed Mobile Century, which was conceived as a proof of concept of such a system. Mobile Century included 100 vehicles carrying a GPS-enabled Nokia N95 phone driving loops on a 10-mile stretch of I-880 near Union City, California, for 8 hours. Data were collected using virtual trip lines, which are geographical markers stored in the handset that probabilistically trigger position and speed updates when the handset crosses them. The proposed prototype system provided sufficient data for traffic monitoring purposes while managing the privacy of participants. The data obtained in the experiment were processed in real-time and successfully broadcast on the internet, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed system for real-time traffic monitoring. Results suggest that a 2-3% penetration of cell phones in the driver population is enough to provide accurate measurements of the velocity of the traffic flow.

2025, BMC Health Services Research

Background: Ensuring access to timely and appropriate primary healthcare for people living in poverty is an issue facing all countries, even those with universal healthcare systems. The transformation of healthcare practices and organization could be improved by involving key stakeholders from the community and the healthcare system in the development of research interventions. The aim of this project is to stimulate changes in healthcare organizations and practices by encouraging collaboration between care teams and people living in poverty. Our objectives are twofold: 1) to identify actions required to promote the adoption of professional practices oriented toward social competence in primary care teams; and 2) to examine factors that would encourage the inclusion of people living in poverty in the process of developing social competence in healthcare organizations. Methods/design: This study will use a participatory action research design applied in healthcare organizations. Participatory research is an increasingly recognized approach that is helpful for involving the people for whom the research results are intended. Our research team consists of 19 non-academic researchers, 11 academic researchers and six partners. A steering committee composed of academic researchers and stakeholders will have a decisionmaking role at each step, including knowledge dissemination and recommendations for new interventions. In this project we will adopt a multiphase approach and will use a variety of methods, including photovoice, group discussions and interviews. Discussion: The proposed study will be one of only a few using participatory research in primary care to foster changes aimed at enhancing quality and access to care for people living in poverty. To our knowledge this will be the first study to use photovoice in healthcare organizations to promote new interventions. Our project includes partners who are targeted for practice changes and improvements in delivering primary care to persons living in poverty. By involving knowledge users, including service recipients, our study is more likely to produce a transformation of professional practices and encourage healthcare organizations to take into account the needs of persons living in poverty.

2025, The Journal of Supercomputing

In this paper, we investigate distributed mutual exclusion algorithms and delineate the features of a new distributed mutual exclusion algorithm. The basis of the algorithm is the logical ring structure employed in token-based mutual exclusion algorithms. Specifically, there exists dynamic properties of the logical ring that, given certain restrictions regarding message traffic flow, passively give useful information about the location

2025, The international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease : the official journal of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease

To elucidate networks of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission, it may be appropriate to characterize the types of relationships among tuberculosis (TB) cases and their contacts (with and without latent TB infection) in addition to relying on traditional efforts to distinguish 'close' from 'casual' contacts. A TB outbreak in a US low incidence state. To evaluate whether social network analysis can provide insights into transmission settings that might otherwise go unrecognized by routine practices. All adult outbreak-associated cases (n = 19) and a convenience sample of their contacts with and without latent TB infection (LTBI) (n = 26) were re-interviewed in 2001 using a structured questionnaire. Network analysis software was used to create diagrams illustrating important persons within the outbreak network, as well as types of activities TB cases engaged in with their contacts. Drug use and drug sharing were more commonly reported among cases and their infected c...

2025, Automatica

This paper introduces appropriate concepts of input-to-state stability (ISS) and integral-ISS for impulsive systems, i.e., dynamical systems that evolve according to ordinary differential equations most of the time, but occasionally exhibit discontinuities (or impulses). We provide a set of Lyapunov-based sufficient conditions for establishing these ISS properties. When the continuous dynamics are ISS but the discrete dynamics that govern the impulses are not, the impulses should not occur too frequently, which is formalized in terms of an average dwell-time (ADT) condition. Conversely, when the impulse dynamics are ISS but the continuous dynamics are not, there must not be overly long intervals between impulses, which is formalized in terms of a novel reverse ADT condition. We also investigate the cases where (i) both the continuous and discrete dynamics are ISS and (ii) one of these is ISS and the other only marginally stable for the zero input, while sharing a common Lyapunov function. In the former case we obtain a stronger notion of ISS, for which a necessary and sufficient Lyapunov characterization is available. The use of the tools developed herein is illustrated through examples from a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) oscillator and a problem of remote estimation over a communication network.

2025, IEEE Communications Magazine

Mobile multimedia applications require networks that optimally allocate resources and adapt to dynamically changing environments. Cross-layer design (CLD) is a new paradigm that addresses this challenge by optimizing communication network architectures across traditional layer boundaries. In this article we discuss the relevant technical challenges of CLD and focus on application-driven CLD for video streaming over wireless networks. We propose a cross-layer optimization strategy that jointly optimizes the application layer, data link layer, and physical layer of the protocol stack using an applicationoriented objective function in order to maximize user satisfaction. In our experiments we demonstrate the performance gain achievable with this approach. We also explore the trade-off between performance gain and additional computation and communication cost introduced by crosslayer optimization. Finally, we outline future research challenges in CLD.

2025, Health Information & Libraries Journal

Objectives: This article examines a strategic approach to developing e‐learning capability to enhance learning opportunities for the workforce of a healthcare organization. Emphasis is given to the procurement of a bespoke Managed Learning Environment (MLE). Strategic organizational issues impacting on future e‐learning developments are considered.Methods: The 2‐year implementation plan was evaluated through a two phase external research project. The first phase focused on the effectiveness of a training programme designed to build capacity for e‐learning within the Northern area and also included a virtual learning environment usability study which informed the MLE specification. The second phase evaluation is ongoing during 2005 and interim findings are presented.Results: The MLE has been piloted and on‐line learning packages have been acquired. There has been a phased take‐up of e‐learning opportunities and e‐tutor training. Some virtual Communities of Practice have been estab...

2025, Journal of Pakistan Medical Association

Background: The overall use of modern contraception in Pakistan is quite low, especially in rural areas. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of social franchising (SF) approaches in increasing access to modern contraception and improving the quality of healthcare in resource-poor areas in Asia and Africa. Drawing on best practices in SF, the Marie Stopes Society (MSS) implemented an SF model in certain rural areas of Pakistan to increase access to affordable and quality family planning (FP) services. The model was branded as Suraj (sun) and complemented with an innovative voucher scheme for intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCDs). This paper describes the perspectives of Suraj clients, field workers mobilization (FWMs), and providers on various components of the Suraj model. Methodology: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted in six randomly selected intervention districts in the Sindh and Punjab provinces. Data were collected using focus group discussions (FGDs) with clients and in-depth interviews (IDIs) with providers and FWMs. Data were manually analyzed using constant comparison and the thematic analysis approach. Findings: Clients showed positive attitudes towards modern contraceptive methods and identified Suraj FWMs and signboards as sources of information. Almost all clients reported IUCDs as effective methods as they have manageable side effects and require fewer visits to clinics. They spoke highly of voucher schemes as these enabled them to avail free IUCD services. Clients also appreciated many components of Suraj clinics, including cleanliness, privacy, confidentiality, the sterilization of instruments, and courteous Suraj providers and FWMs. Most Suraj providers said that IUCD insertion and infection-prevention training enhanced their ability to provide IUCD services and increased their standing in local communities. They reported that the role of FWMs was crucial in mobilizing the community and increasing their FP clientele. The FWMs said that attitudes towards FP were changing because of economic pressure at the household level, increases in literacy, and community mobilization efforts. Conclusion: The Suraj intervention influenced attitudes towards FP and modern contraception, positively. Women using IUCDs showed greater satisfaction with the method. The findings emphasize that SF approaches like Suraj, when complemented with vouchers and community mobilization efforts, can improve the utilization of long-term contraceptive methods among rural and underserved women. The study also identified the need for integrating FP, antenatal care, and safe delivery services.

2025, Reproductive health

Family planning (FP) interventions aimed at reducing population growth have negligible during the last two decades in Pakistan. Innovative FP interventions that help reduce the growing population burden are the need of the hour. Marie Stopes Society - Pakistan implemented an operational research project - 'Evidence for Innovating to Save Lives', to explore effective and viable intervention models that can promote healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy in rural and under-served communities of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Pakistan. We conducted a quasi-experimental (pre - and post-intervention with control arm) study to assess the effectiveness of each of the two intervention models, 1) Suraj model (meaning…

2025, Journal of Adolescent Health

2025, Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia

During the 17th and 18th centuries, many Vietnamese people from the Ngũ Quảng region (the present-day Quảng Bì nh, Quảng Trị, Huế, Đà Nẵng, Quảng Nam, and Quảng Ngãi in the Central region) migrated and settled in today's southern Vietnam, bringing with them many Confucian values related to family and clan organization, especially the concept of filial piety and ancestor worship. Due to the particularity of the immigration situation and living environment in the new frontiers, the ancestor worship, which had been full of Confucian flavor, gradually changed in the direction of "reorganization" and have become a simple yet meaningful collective ritual dedicated to early ancestors during the immigration periods. This article uses Eric Hobsbawm's (1992) "the invention of tradition" theory, Maurice Halbwachs's (1983) collective memory theory, and Fredrik Barth's (1969) rational choice theory to analyze and synthesize ethnographic field data sources on cúng việc lề (routined clan-ancestor anniversary) mainly collected in Long An Province (a provinve in the Mekong Delta) to demonstrate that the tradition of ancestor worship in southern Vietnam is not only considered a way to give thanks and commemorate the dead, but also, in the special context of immigration, a form of reconstructed Confucian ritual that consolidates family lineage and empowers the living culturally.

2025, Health Promotion Journal of Australia

Kalgoorlie, Bunbury and Geraldton. SSAY may not feel comfortable accessing mainstream youth support services owing to issues of confidentiality and a preference for anonymity regarding their sexual orientation. Further, the needs and issues of SSAY are generally not well understood by service providers. Some providers admit to lacking the information and experience they need to provide effective support.

2025, PLOS ONE

While community-based active case finding (ACF) for tuberculosis (TB) holds promise for increasing early case detection among hard-to-reach populations, limited data exist on the acceptability of active screening. We aimed to identify barriers and explore facilitators on the pathway from diagnosis to care among TB patients and health providers. Mixed-methods study. We administered a survey questionnaire to, and performed in-depth interviews with, TB patients identified through ACF from poor urban settlements in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Additionally, we conducted focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with community and public health providers involved in ACF, respectively. Acceptance of home TB screening was strong among key stakeholders due to perceived reductions in access barriers and in direct and indirect patient costs. Privacy and stigma were not an issue. To build trust and facilitate communication, the participation of community representatives alongside health workers was preferred. Most health providers saw ACF as complementary to existing TB services; however, additional workload as a result of ACF was perceived as straining operating capacity at public sector sites. Proximity to a health facility and disease severity were the strongest determinants of prompt care-seeking. The main reasons reported for delays in treatment-seeking were non-acceptance of

2025

this paper we describe how we modified the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) code described in [4] so that it would run efficiently on parallel machines and we give some statistics about its performance on the Cray T3E. Since the first target architecture for the modified code was the Cray T3E, which is a distributed memory machine, we call this modification Distributed Adaptive Mesh Refinement (DAMR). AMR codes are well known to be large and complex. What's more, given the scientific context in which they are used, one is always incorporating additional features to expand their utility. One effective way to deal with program complexity and maintenance problems is to use object oriented programming to manage the higher level data structures in the code. When running AMR code on a parallel machine, program complexity increases even more because communication between hosts needs to occur in a manner which is determined dynamically. It is not at all clear how to keep the processors bu...

2025

l'équipe HOTES «horloges optiques et tests fondamentaux par spectroscopie et interférométrie atomique et moléculaire», dirigée conjointement par Christian J. Bordé et Christian Chardonnet. Mes remerciements vont d'abord à Messieurs

2025

The paper addresses initial steps involved in the development and flight implementation of new metrics driven L1 adaptive flight control system. The work concentrates on (i) definition of appropriate control driven metrics that account for the control surface failures; (ii) tailoring recently developed L1 adaptive controller to the design of adaptive flight control systems that explicitly address these metrics in the presence of control surface failures and dynamic changes under adverse flight conditions; (iii) development of a flight control system for implementation of the resulting algorithms onboard of small UAV; and (iv) conducting a comprehensive flight test program that demonstrates performance of the developed adaptive control algorithms in the presence of failures. As the initial milestone the paper concentrates on the adaptive flight system setup and initial efforts addressing the ability of a commercial off-the-shelf AP with and without adaptive augmentation to recover from control surface failures.

2025

The Scottish Government is promoting higher rates and longer duration of breastfeeding. This is primarily through education-based initiatives aiming to raise the awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and child, and to... more

2025, Studia Informatica Universalis

Beaucoup d'applications dans les réseaux de capteurs sont basées sur la connaissance des positions des capteurs. A priori, quelques capteurs connaissent leurs positions (via GPS). L'objectif de ce papier est de permettre le positionnement des capteurs restants avec précision. Les technologies existantes (e.g. ToA -Time of Arrival) permettent de calculer les distances entre deux noeuds voisins. Une nouvelle technique distribuée basée sur les distances, appelée AT-Dist, est présentée. Elle utilise deux propriétés importantes : premièrement, elle permet de localiser des capteurs tout en fournissant la précision de ces positions reformules. Ainsi, un capteur peut déduire si sa position estimée est proche de sa position réelle et contribuer au positionnement des autres capteurs. Deuxièmement, AT-Dist gère l'introduction des erreurs de mesure qui est le principal défaut des méthodes basées sur les distances. En conséquence, AT-Dist localise avec des positions exactes ou estimées les capteurs. Les simulations montrent l'efficacité de notre méthode par rapport à d'autres. first, it allows to locate sensor nodes while giving them the accuracy of their position. Thus, a sensor node can deduce if its estimated position is close to its real position and contribute to the positioning of others nodes. Second, AT-Dist manages introduction of measure errors which is the main drawback of range-based methods. As a result, AT-Dist locates with an exact or accuracy position many sensors. Simulations show the efficiency of our method in comparison to others.