Interrater Reliability Estimation via Maximum Likelihood for Gwet’s Chance Agreement Model

Interrater reliability (IRR) statistics, like Cohen’s kappa, measure agreement between raters beyond what is expected by chance when classifying items into categories. While Cohen’s kappa has been widely used, it has several limitations, prompting development of Gwet’s agreement statistic, an alternative “kappa”statistic which models chance agreement via an “occasional guessing” model. However, we show that Gwet’s formula for estimating the proportion of agreement due to chance is itself biased for intermediate levels of agreement, despite overcoming limitations of Cohen’s kappa at high and low agreement levels. We derive a maximum likelihood estimator for the occasional guessing model that yields an unbiased estimator of the IRR, which we call the maximum likelihood kappa (κML). The key result is that the chance agreement probability under the occasional guessing model is simply equal to the observed rate of disagreement between raters. The κMLstatistic provides a theoretically principled approach to quantifying IRR that addresses limitations of previous κcoefficients. Given the widespread use of IRR measures, having an unbiased estimator is important for reliable inference across domains where rater judgments are analyzed.

Chaotic Map-Based Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol with Low-Latency for Metasystem

With the rapid advancement in exploring perceptual interactions and digital twins,metaverse technology has emerged to transcend the constraints of space-time and reality,facilitating remote AI-based collaboration.In this dynamic metasystem environment,frequent information exchanges necessitate robust security measures,with Authentication and Key Agreement(AKA)serving as the primary line of defense to ensure communication security.However,traditional AKA protocols fall short in meeting the low-latency requirements essential for synchronous interactions within the metaverse.To address this challenge and enable nearly latency-free interactions,a novel low-latency AKA protocol based on chaotic maps is proposed.This protocol not only ensures mutual authentication of entities within the metasystem but also generates secure session keys.The security of these session keys is rigorously validated through formal proofs,formal verification,and informal proofs.When confronted with the Dolev-Yao(DY)threat model,the session keys are formally demonstrated to be secure under the Real-or-Random(ROR)model.The proposed protocol is further validated through simulations conducted using VMware workstation compiled in HLPSL language and C language.The simulation results affirm the protocol’s effectiveness in resisting well-known attacks while achieving the desired low latency for optimal metaverse interactions.

Cautionary Remarks When Testing Agreement between Two Raters for Continuous Scale Measurements: A Tutorial in Clinical Epidemiology with Implementation Using R

Background: When continuous scale measurements are available, agreements between two measuring devices are assessed both graphically and analytically. In clinical investigations, Bland and Altman proposed plotting subject-wise differences between raters against subject-wise averages. In order to scientifically assess agreement, Bartko recommended combining the graphical approach with the statistical analytic procedure suggested by Bradley and Blackwood. The advantage of using this approach is that it enables significance testing and sample size estimation. We noted that the direct use of the results of the regression is misleading and we provide a correction in this regard. Methods: Graphical and linear models are used to assess agreements for continuous scale measurements. We demonstrate that software linear regression results should not be readily used and we provided correct analytic procedures. The degrees of freedom of the F-statistics are incorrectly reported, and we propose methods to overcome this problem by introducing the correct analytic form of the F statistic. Methods for sample size estimation using R-functions are also given. Results: We believe that the tutorial and the R-codes are useful tools for testing and estimating agreement between two rating protocols for continuous scale measurements. The interested reader may use the codes and apply them to their available data when the issue of agreement between two raters is the subject of interest.

Game Analysis of Implementing Price Undertaking Agreements in Anti-dumping Disputes

The Price Undertaking Agreement is one of the strategies a company accused of dumping often adopts in dealing with anti-dumping disputes.Using static game analysis,this paper compares the impact that anti-dumping duties and price undertaking agreements may have on an importing country's social welfare and an accused company's market performance.We conclude that,compared with anti-dumping duties,price undertakings improve the importing country's social welfare and reduce the accused company's market share in the import country.We also note that,in addition to the financial benefit,price undertakings can prevent escalation of trade disputes in international trade negotiations.

Construction of Strategic Supporting-System for Anti-dumping Measures on China's Agricultural Products

With the international trade theories as the basis,this study started with researches on the reality of agricultural products that often experience anti-dumping,carried out a careful study on the construction of business strategic supporting-system to cope with the anti-dumping so as to promote the association governance and industrial warning mechanism and to provide new strategic thinking and theoretical support for the exporters to cope with anti-dumping.

Solutions of the Growing Use of Anti-dumping Measures by Countries in Recent Decades

In recent decades, international trade has evolved into a complex system of trade barriers to ensure the protection of domestic industry and its workers interests. However as tariffs have fallen and international trade tends to be free trade, countries have found another way of protecting domestic industries from foreign competition—non-tariff protection. Among them anti-dumping is the most controversial subject that is involved in the foreign trade. This theme will analyze the reason and effect of growing use anti-dumping measures by countries in recent decades and try to give some possible solutions.

Study on the use of trade barrier of anti-dumping in China

WTO allows its members to use anti-dumping barrier to combat unfair competition. Nowadays, anti-dumping barrier has been dominant protective trade measure in the world, while in China, this measure is still not fully used and at low level. For the purpose of protecting domestic industries and enhancing national welfare, China should use this barrier cautiously and construct its own anti-dumping system at the same time.

Comparison Research on Anti-dumping Duty Rates between Administrative Review and Welfare Maximization under Dynamic Game of Perfect Information

Using economics and game theory, two kinds of models have been proposed in this paper under the assumption that foreign and domestic firms behave under the condition of dynamic game of perfect information. One model is for calculating Anti-dumping rate which is obtained according to current regulations of Anti-dumping, but it is not optimal. The other is an optimal model of Anti-dumping which is obtained according to the maximum principle of domestic social welfare. Then, through the comparison of this two models in detail, several shortages have been revealed about Anti-dumping rate model based on current regulations of Anti-dumping. Finally, a suggestion is indicated that WTO and China should use the optimal model to calculate Anti-dumping rate.

Why Has China Become a Target of Anti-dumping Activities?

Although the benefits of China’s trade expansion have been distributed much more broadly than those of some early industrialized nations,China has become the primary target of anti-dumping activities.Being a new and relatively efficient new rival in the global market may be an important reason for this.On the other hand,China’s development stage and her trade structure also place her in a disadvantageous position when it comes to anti-dumping activities.

Anti-dumping in Textiles and Clothing

In the run up to the expiry of quota restrictions that had long regulated much of global trade in textiles and clothing, many a pundit predicted widespread recourse to anti-dumping actions.

Improved quantum key agreement protocol with authentication

In order to make the quantum key agreement process immune to participant attacks, it is necessary to introduce the authentication in the communication process. A quantum key agreement protocol with identity authentication that exploits the measurement correlation of six-particle entangled states is proposed. In contrast to some recently proposed quantum key agreement protocols with authentication, this protocol requires neither a semi-trusted third party nor additional private keys in the authentication process. The entire process of authentication and key agreement can be achieved using only n six-particle entangled states, which saves communication costs and reduces the complexity of the authentication process.Finally, security analysis shows that this scheme is resistant to some important attacks.

NCTO Endorses Mexican Anti-dumping Case With China

The president of the National Council of Textile Organizations(NCTO )has written a letter to the Mexican Economic Secretary Hugo Diaz strongly endorsing his country’s decision to seek a World Trade Organization(WTO)

Efficient Certificateless Authenticated Key Agreement for Blockchain-Enabled Internet of Medical Things

Internet of Medical Things(IoMT)plays an essential role in collecting and managing personal medical data.In recent years,blockchain technology has put power in traditional IoMT systems for data sharing between different medical institutions and improved the utilization of medical data.However,some problems in the information transfer process between wireless medical devices and mobile medical apps,such as information leakage and privacy disclosure.This paper first designs a cross-device key agreement model for blockchain-enabled IoMT.This model can establish a key agreement mechanism for secure medical data sharing.Meanwhile,a certificateless authenticated key agreement(KA)protocol has been proposed to strengthen the information transfer security in the cross-device key agreement model.The proposed KA protocol only requires one exchange of messages between the two parties,which can improve the protocol execution efficiency.Then,any unauthorized tampering of the transmitted signed message sent by the sender can be detected by the receiver,so this can guarantee the success of the establishment of a session key between the strange entities.The blockchain ledger can ensure that the medical data cannot be tampered with,and the certificateless mechanism can weaken the key escrow problem.Moreover,the security proof and performance analysis are given,which show that the proposed model and KA protocol are more secure and efficient than other schemes in similar literature.

Anti-dumping Investigation Puts Pressure on China

Under the pressure of the anti- dumping investigations on silk fabrics launched by the Indian government, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import & Export of Textiles (CCCT) announced that it has decided not to hold the Silk Trade Fair (Autumn) this year, in order to avoid the negative effects the case might bring.

A Provably Secure and PUF-Based Authentication Key Agreement Scheme for Cloud-Edge IoT

With the exponential growth of intelligent Internet of Things(IoT)applications,Cloud-Edge(CE)paradigm is emerging as a solution that facilitates resource-efficient and timely services.However,it remains an underlying issue that frequent end-edgecloud communication is over a public or adversarycontrolled channel.Additionally,with the presence of resource-constrained devices,it’s imperative to conduct the secure communication mechanism,while still guaranteeing efficiency.Physical unclonable functions(PUF)emerge as promising lightweight security primitives.Thus,we first construct a PUF-based security mechanism for vulnerable IoT devices.Further,a provably secure and PUF-based authentication key agreement scheme is proposed for establishing the secure channel in end-edge-cloud empowered IoT,without requiring pre-loaded master keys.The security of our scheme is rigorously proven through formal security analysis under the random oracle model,and security verification using AVISPA tool.The comprehensive security features are also elaborated.Moreover,the numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms existing related schemes in terms of computational and communication efficiency.

Anti-Dumping on and from China

The past years saw an increased cases of anti-dumping on China mostly from the developed countries,some from developing countries.But Pakistan,a friendly neighbor to China,recently adds up to that list of ranks for an anti-dumping investigation on China.It is the national interests that count most,after all. It gives out a signal that anti-dumping would be a frequent tool to defend or to attack. Evidences show China is a target for this trade remedy,but is also targeting others.

Ministry of Commerce's Final Arbitration on Anti-dumping Investigation on Nonyl Pheno

The Ministry of Commerce of People’s Republic of China issued the Announcement No.11,2007 of