Problems and Countermeasures to Improve Clinical Trial Participants’Compensation Rights in China

Objective To discuss the problems existing in the compensation of Chinese clinical trial participants and propose some suggestions for improving their rights.Methods The literature related to the participants’right to compensation at home and abroad was searched to study the inadequacy of the compensation right for clinical trial participants in China from four aspects:insurance system,principle of attribution,legal relationship and compensation regulations.Then,some suggestions to improve the participants’right to compensation were proposed.Results and Conclusion China lacks clear legal norms for participants’right to compensation.There are problems such as unclear insurance rules and compensation rules,unclear contractual relationships between parties to clinical trials,and no laws and regulations to rely on for attribution and compensation.China should issue regulatory guidelines related to the right to compensation of participants in clinical trials,so that all parties in clinical trials can have rules to follow if there is the occurrence of injury,which can better protect the rights and interests of the participants.

Association between Free Triiodothyronine Levels and Peripheral Arterial Disease in Euthyroid Participants

This current cross-sectional study investigates the relationship between thyroid hormones and peripheral artery disease （PAD） among euthyroid Chinese population aged 40 years and above. Serum free triiodothyronine （FT3）, free thyroxin （FT4）, thyroid-stimulating hormone （TSH）, and thyroid antibodies were measured.

Practical Quantum Private Query with Classical Participants

Quantum key distribution(QKD)-based quantum private query(QPQ) is a practical application of QKD, which relaxes the security condition of perfectly concealing a private query to a cheating-sensitive strategy. We propose a QPQ protocol based on the delegated QKD scheme(DQKD-based QPQ), in which two almost ‘classical' clients(data user and database owner) can establish a 1-out-of-N oblivious key with the help of a cloud server with full quantum ability. Concretely, the two classical participants in the DQKD-based QPQ only need to access the quantum channel and reorder qubits, and the costly quantum operations, quantum state preparation and measurement are outsourced to a full quantum server in the cloud without leaking participants' privacy. The proposed protocol not only provides a cloud-based framework of QKD-based QPQ, but also obtains better security by a real-time security check, which can protect the security of the database and user against all potential attacks even if the quantum server is assumed to be a powerfully untrusted adversary.

A Decision Model for Selecting Participants in Supply Chain

In order to satisfy the rapid changing requirements of customers, enterprises must cooperate with each other to form supply chain. The first and the most important stage in the forming of supply chain is the selection of participants. The article proposes a two staged decision model to select partners. The first stage is the inter company comparison in each business process to select high efficiency candidate based on inside variables. The next stage is to analyse the combination of different candidates in order to select the most perfect partners according to a goal programming model.

Safety at Work of Participants in the Railway Transport of Dangerous Goods

The transport of dangerous goods always represents a potential risk to life,human health,property,and environmental protection.For this reason and in order to preserve the lives and health of the participants in the transport process,adequate protection measures must be taken before,during,and after the transport of dangerous goods.Since the railway itself is a recipient of dangerous goods that are essential for its own operation,and is also a carrier of large quantities of various dangerous goods,these measures are of paramount importance.This paper examines,from a point of view of the protection of lives and health of the participants in the transport process and the safe transport of dangerous goods,the conditions of shipment and transport of dangerous goods,the obligations of the participants,and the essential ways for their proper handling.Proper application of safety at work prevents impromptu and indolent attitude in transporting dangerous goods,thus contributing to protection of people lives and health.Finally,this paper includes preventive measures and basic principles for implementation of safety at work in the transport of dangerous goods.

Analysis of the Differences in Expenditure Levels of Participants at the 2014 Asian Basketball League in Ho Chi Minh City

Research focuses on studying the economic impacts of 2014 Asian Basketball League in Ho Chi Minh City （hereinaiter referred as ABL 2014） with respect to direct expenditure of all types of participants, including organizers, coaches/athletes, journalists/communicators, audiences, etc. Research was implemented with 920 subjects, including 48 members of the organizing committee, 56 coaches/athletes, 800 audiences and 16 members of journal and media teams.

Two NGO-Run Youth-Centers in Multicultural, Socially Deprived Suburbs in Sweden—Who Are the Participants?

Objective: Leisure-time is an important part of young people’s lives. One way to reduce social differences in health is to improve adolescents’ living conditions, for example by enhancing the quality of after-school activities. Multicultural, socially deprived suburbs have less youth participation in organized leisure-time activities. This study explores who the participants are at two NGO-run youth-centers in multicultural, socially deprived suburbs in Sweden and whether socio-demographic, health-related, and leisure-time factors affect the targeted participation. Methods: The study can be seen as an explanatory mixed-methods study where qualitative data help explain initial quantitative results. The included data are a survey with youth (n = 207), seven individual interviews with staff, and six focus-groups interviews with young people at two youth-centers in two different cities. Results and Conclusions: The participants in the youth-centers are Swedish born youths having foreign-born parents who live with both parents, often in crowded apartments with many siblings. Moreover they feel healthy, enjoy school and have good contact with their parents. It seems that strategies for recruiting youths to youth-centers have a large impact on who participates. One way to succeed in having a more equal gender and ethnicity distribution is to offer youth activities that are a natural step forward from children’s activities. The youth-centers’ proximity is also of importance for participation, in these types of neighborhoods.

Athletic Participation and Academic Achievement of High School Students: A Longitudinal Study of Athletic and Non-Athletic Participants

The majority of extant research studies have established that high school students’athletic participation is positively associated with several educational outcomes,including academic performance.However,the effect of long-term athletic participation on academic performance remains unclear.Using a longitudinal data of 220 students from a high school in eastern Massachusetts of the United States,this study has revealed that athletic participants in this school started with a statistically significant higher GPA than non-participants in the first year of study,and have continued to be higher in the following two years,lag behind significantly,however,in academic achievement growth from their nonparticipation counterparts.The results of the study call for thoughtful decision-making regarding sports programs and athletic policies,proper guidance and adequate support for athletes and an optimal sport-academic culture in American high schools.

The Chinese Reception of Western Marxism:From Wary Onlookers to Confident Participants on the World Stage

This study presents an analytic overview of forty years of study of Western Marxism by Chinese scholars.Organised into four main sections,it begins with an emphasis on the wider institutional context of this Chinese research.Here,I deal with the beginnings of research on Western Marxism in China and outline the two main periods of this research,which turn on the important educational reforms of 2005.The next section focuses on the initial period of research on Western Marxism,from the early 1980s to the education reforms,which may be characterised in terms of the work of“wary onlookers”writing introductions and surveys of Western Marxist scholars.The following section covers the last two decades after the 2005 education reforms.This period is of most interest,so more attention is devoted to developments during this time.It has been a time of increasingly confident participants on the world stage,who focus on core issues,realistic demands,and problem-based research.The final section concerns assessments of the limitations of Western Marxism,which have been identified through the in-depth research of the second period.In conclusion,while Western Marxism may be seen as a legitimate development of Marxism in a capitalist context,it is a tributary from the mainstream.

Participants’ Voices

United States As the host of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama called for the securing of

MOTIVATING STUDENTS TO BE ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN CLASS

Introduction In China, it is not uncommon for students to be treated as passive recipients in class. They are trained in this way from primary school. So by the time they enter college, not only are they accustomed to the role of submissive student following the lead of a dominant teacher, but they also quite welcome it, for they don’t have to take any initiative in class, they just wait to be filled with knowledge. Students’ hesitancy to participate actively in class comes not just from students themselves but also from some teachers, who stick to the force-feeding method because it is an easy way for them to conduct a class. So I started to try and change this situation. I designed a teaching plan in which I used different techniques to provide the students with lots of opportunities to be active participants in class. Some of the techniques used are described below.

Dropout reasons and associated factors with active dropout in Chinese healthy participants of bioequivalence studies

Maintaining participants in a trial ultimately without dropout helps keep a study on track,saving time,money,and resources.Since 2015,extensive bioequivalence(BE)studies have been carried out in China,while no research about dropout in healthy volunteers has been reported yet.In this retrospective study,1078 healthy volunteers participating in 18 BE studies from March 2016 to February 2019 in one Chinese hospital were included.Information about the healthy participants and BE studies was recorded for analysis.In terms of the dropout reason,poor compliance,adverse event(AE),and loss of follow-up were found to be the three leading causes of dropout,accounting for 78.7%of all dropouts.In terms of associated factors with active dropout,smoking habit(OR=5.790,P<0.001)was significantly associated with increased risk of active dropout,while older age(OR=0.940,P=0.042)and AE except for SAE(OR=0.321,P=0.004)were significantly associated with a decreased risk of active dropout.Strengthening the education on younger participants and participants with a smoking habit,as well as emphasizing the possible adverse reactions and potential risks,might be strategies to reduce active dropout in healthy participants.

A Federated Learning Framework with Blockchain-Based Auditable Participant Selection

Federated learning is an important distributed model training technique in Internet of Things(IoT),in which participant selection is a key component that plays a role in improving training efficiency and model accuracy.This module enables a central server to select a subset of participants to performmodel training based on data and device information.By doing so,selected participants are rewarded and actively perform model training,while participants that are detrimental to training efficiency and model accuracy are excluded.However,in practice,participants may suspect that the central server may have miscalculated and thus not made the selection honestly.This lack of trustworthiness problem,which can demotivate participants,has received little attention.Another problem that has received little attention is the leakage of participants’private information during the selection process.We will therefore propose a federated learning framework with auditable participant selection.It supports smart contracts in selecting a set of suitable participants based on their training loss without compromising the privacy.Considering the possibility of malicious campaigning and impersonation of participants,the framework employs commitment schemes and zero-knowledge proofs to counteract these malicious behaviors.Finally,we analyze the security of the framework and conduct a series of experiments to demonstrate that the framework can effectively improve the efficiency of federated learning.

Network analysis of the relationships between depressive symptoms and social participation activities among Chinese older adults and its implications for nursing

Objective:Network analysis was used to explore the complex inter-relationships between social participation activities and depressive symptoms among the Chinese older population,and the differences in network structures among different genders,age groups,and urban-rural residency would be compared.Methods:Based on the 2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey(CLHLS),12,043 people aged 65 to 105 were included.The 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression(CESD)Scale was used to assess depressive symptoms and 10 types of social participation activities were collected,including housework,tai-chi,square dancing,visiting and interacting with friends,garden work,reading newspapers or books,raising domestic animals,playing cards or mahjong,watching TV or listening to radio,and organized social activities.R 4.2.1 software was used to estimate the network model and calculate strength and bridge strength.Results:21.60%(2,601/12,043)of the participants had depressive symptoms.The total social participation score was negatively associated with depressive symptoms after adjusting for sociodemographic factors.The network of social participation and depressive symptoms showed that“D9(Inability to get going)”and“S9(Watching TV and/or listening to the radio)”had the highest strength within depressive symptoms and social participation communities,respectively,and“S1(Housework)”,“S9(Watching TV and/or listening to the radio)”,and“D5(Hopelessness)”were the most prominent bridging nodes between the two communities.Most edges linking the two communities were negative.“S5(Graden work)-D5(Hopelessness)”and“S6(Reading newspapers/books)-D4(Everything was an effort)”were the top 2 strongest negative edges.Older females had significantly denser network structures than older males.Compared to older people aged 65e80,the age group 81e105 showed higher network global strength.Conclusions:This study provides novel insights into the complex relationships between social participation and depressive symptoms.Except for doing housework,other social participation activities were found to be protective for depression levels.Different nursing strategies should be taken to prevent and alleviate depressive symptoms for different genders and older people of different ages.

Low-frequency oscillation of train-network system considering traction power supply mode

The low-frequency oscillation(LFO)has occurred in the train-network system due to the introduction of the power electronics of the trains.The modeling and analyzing method in current researches based on electrified railway unilateral power supply system are not suitable for the LFO analysis in a bilateral power supply system,where the trains are supplied by two traction substations.In this work,based on the single-input and single-output impedance model of China CRH5 trains,the node admittance matrices of the train-network system both in unilateral and bilateral power supply modes are established,including three-phase power grid,traction transformers and traction network.Then the modal analysis is used to study the oscillation modes and propagation characteristics of the unilateral and bilateral power supply systems.Moreover,the influence of the equivalent inductance of the power grid,the length of the transmission line,and the length of the traction network are analyzed on the critical oscillation mode of the bilateral power supply system.Finally,the theoretical analysis results are verified by the time-domain simulation model in MATLAB/Simulink.

Optimal dispatching strategy for residential demand response considering load participation

To facilitate the coordinated and large-scale participation of residential flexible loads in demand response(DR),a load aggregator(LA)can integrate these loads for scheduling.In this study,a residential DR optimization scheduling strategy was formulated considering the participation of flexible loads in DR.First,based on the operational characteristics of flexible loads such as electric vehicles,air conditioners,and dishwashers,their DR participation,the base to calculate the compensation price to users,was determined by considering these loads as virtual energy storage.It was quantified based on the state of virtual energy storage during each time slot.Second,flexible loads were clustered using the K-means algorithm,considering the typical operational and behavioral characteristics as the cluster centroid.Finally,the LA scheduling strategy was implemented by introducing a DR mechanism based on the directrix load.The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DR approach can effectively reduce peak loads and fill valleys,thereby improving the load management performance.

Stability and accuracy of central difference method for real-time dynamic substructure testing considering mass participation coefficient

For real-time dynamic substructure testing(RTDST),the influence of the inertia force of fluid specimens on the stability and accuracy of the integration algorithms has never been investigated.Therefore,this study proposes to investigate the stability and accuracy of the central difference method(CDM)for RTDST considering the specimen mass participation coefficient.First,the theory of the CDM for RTDST is presented.Next,the stability and accuracy of the CDM for RTDST considering the specimen mass participation coefficient are investigated.Finally,numerical simulations and experimental tests are conducted for verifying the effectiveness of the method.The study indicates that the stability of the algorithm is affected by the mass participation coefficient of the specimen,and the stability limit first increases and then decreases as the mass participation coefficient increases.In most cases,the mass participation coefficient will increase the stability limit of the algorithm,but in specific circumstances,the algorithm may lose its stability.The stability and accuracy of the CDM considering the mass participation coefficient are verified by numerical simulations and experimental tests on a three-story frame structure with a tuned liquid damper.

Different people,different wild:Comparing and mapping wilderness representation in Wuyishan National Park,China

It is essential to better integrate wilderness representations of different stakeholders into wilderness conservation.The way in which local residents and other stakeholders frame the construction of wilderness of protected areas in developing countries are poorly understood.In these areas,land use policy and decision may lead to conflicts.This study aims to explore existing public wilderness representations using a questionnaire survey(n=514)administered amongst tourists and other stakeholders in the Wuyishan National Park,in southeast China.The spatial differences in public representations of wilderness across different stakeholder groups were compared against expert knowledge.We found that integrated wilderness representation maps of different stakeholder groups were consistent,namely'area where wild animals live','area with no human influence','a barren and lonely area'.However,three sub-representations of the individual stakeholders varied significantly.Moreover,expert-based wilderness mapping did not reflect public representations accurately,and an integrated wilder-ness quality map considering wilderness representations across both stakeholders and experts can better identify detailed wilderness areas.Our study provides new insights and technical support for future exploration of wilder-ness conservation and mapping in China and other countries with insufficient awareness of wilderness values and investigations in a regional scale.