Socioeconomic Characteristics of Child-Bearing Mothers and Feeding Practices of Under-Five Children in Kori Chiefdom, Sierra Leone

Introduction: The use of proper feeding practices is key for the overall development of children. Generally, breastfeeding and complementary feeding make up the diet and therefore the nutritional status of children. However, the degree to which mothers adhere to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regarding breastfeeding and complementary feeding is key to the nutritional status of children. Again, the adherence to this dietary recommendation is contingent on the socio-economic conditions of the child-bearing parents, especially the mothers. Here in this study, the socio-economic characteristics were analyzed along with the feeding practices of children not more than five years old in rural Sierra Leone. Method: Data were collected in 2017 on representative mothers with children within 0 - 5 years old. A total of 10 communities and 200 respondents were randomly covered in the Kori Chiefdom of Moyamba District, Sierra Leone. The data collection instruments included structured questionnaire, inter-personal interaction, personal observation and experience. The collected data were analyzed in Microsoft Excel and SPSS and the results presented in simple graphs. Results: A large number of the respondents were married teenage mothers with 1 - 2 children and living under extreme hardship by the United Nations (UN) standard. Also, most of the mothers were illiterate and started breastfeeding their children within the very hour of birth. Because complementary feeding was started all too early, exclusive breastfeeding last for not more than two months for most of the respondent mothers. Also, because rice is by far the most widely eaten the staple food in Sierra Leone, complementary food was mostly powdered rice mixed with salt and oil. Hardly was protein food supplement used as complementary food, probably due to the economic conditions of the poor rural women. Conclusion: The study has thrown sufficient light on the socio-economic characteristics and adopted feeding practices of children in poor rural Sierra Leone. In this sense, the study has laid the basis for sufficient for in-depth correlativity studies on the factors driving feeding practices of children and how it in turn impacts nutritional status of children in poor rural Africa. From here, practically adoptable recommendations can be advanced for the attention of the governments, public institutions, the private sector and the individuals of the society.

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.

基于WS-Agreement的资源预留与QoS监控框架

目前还没有遵循OGSA/WSRF规范的网格服务中间件能够很好地支持基于QoS协商的网格资源管理,因此重点研究了如何设计一个执行服务级协定(SLA)的框架,能够在网格中协商资源预留和任务执行期间对所在资源的QoS监控。首先通过定义资源预留的XML Schema,使得资源请求者和提供者基于WS-Agreement能够协商包含关于资源预留的协定;然后遵循WSRF及WS-*规范设计和开发出一组Web服务用于构建一个基于WS-Agreement的资源预留与QoS监控框架(RMF),并将其集成到Globus资源管理模型中;最后通过理论分析和模拟实验评估了RMF的综合性能。

Possible Chinese Strategic Responses to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership （TPP） Agreement have concluded, but the TPP still must be ratified by each of the 12 member countries. China is the world＇s second largest economy and yet it has not joined the TPP. This has provoked much debate in China as to the best strategic approach to the TPP This paper analyzes China＇s possible strategy for the TPP agreement. We make three key points. First, the security of market access should be China＇s main concern in any free-trade agreement negotiations, regrettably, it is not included in TPP. The second point is that the present TPP agreement is somewhat diminished from its ambitious original claims. We suggest four strategies for China. The first is to promote the development of China＇s remaining regional and bilateral free trade agreements （FTAs）. The second is to negotiate a bilateral FTA with the United States. The third is to promote deep domestic reforms via enlarged TPP coverage. The last is negotiating entrance to the entering do not worsen. TPP as soon as possible so that terms of

FORMAL PROOF OF RELATIVE STRENGTH OF SECURITY AMONG ECK2007 MODEL AND OTHER PROOF MODELS FOR KEY AGREEMENT PROTOCOLS

The differences among the extended Canetti ＆ Krawezyk 2007 model （ECK2007） and other four models, i.e., the Bellare ＆ Rogaway （1993, 1995）models （BR93,BR95）, the Bellare, Pointcheval ＆ Rogaway （2000） model （BPR2000） and the Canetti ＆ Krawczyk （2001） model （CK2001） are given. The relative strength of security among these models is analyzed. To support the implication or non-implication relation among these models, the formal proof or the counter-example is provided.

Security agreement汉译探析

security agreement通常译为"担保协议",内容囊括动产担保与不动产担保。但在美国的法律文本中,security agreement的含义范围与中国法律中的"担保合同"并不对等。文章围绕security agreement在美国法律中的不同含义讨论其中文译名。

Two-Party Authenticated Key Agreement in Certificateless Public Key Cryptography

Certificateless public key cryptography was introduced to overcome the key escrow limitation of the identity-based cryptography. It combines the advantages of the identity-based cryptography and the traditional PKI. Many certificateless public key encryption and signature schemes have been proposed. However, the key agreement in CL-PKE is seldom discussed. In this paper, we present a new certificateless two party authentication key agreement protocol and prove its security attributes. Compared with the existing protocol, our protocol is more efficient.

Efficient Certificateless Authenticated Key Agreement Protocol from Pairings

In the area of secure Web information system, mutual authentication and key agreement are essential between Web clients and servers. An efficient certificateless authenticated key agreement protocol for Web client/server setting is proposed, which uses pairings on certain elliptic curves. We show that the newly proposed key agreement protocol is practical and of great efficiency, meanwhile, it satisfies every desired security require ments for key agreement protocols.

Assessing Disagreement and Tolerance of Misclassification of Satellite-derived Land Cover Products Used in WRF Model Applications

As more satellite-derived land cover products used in the study of global change, especially climate modeling, assessing their quality has become vitally important. In this study, we developed a distance metric based on the parameters used in weather research and forecasting （WRF） to characterize the degree of disagreement among land cover products and to identify the tolerance for misclassification within the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme （IGBP） classification scheme. We determined the spatial degree of disagreement and then created maps of misclassification of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer （MODIS） products, and we calculated overall and class-specific accuracy and fuzzy agreement in a WRF model. Our results show a high level of agreement and high tolerance of misclassification in the WRF model between large-scale homogeneous landscapes, while a low level of agreement and tolerance of misclassification appeared in heterogeneous landscapes. The degree of disagreement varied significantly among seven regions of China. The class-specific accuracy and fuzzy agreement in MODIS Collection 4 and 5 products varied significantly. High accuracy and fuzzy agreement occurred in the following classes： water, grassland, cropland, and barren or sparsely vegetated. Misclassification mainly occurred among specific classes with similar plant functional types and low discriminative spectro-temporal signals. Some classes need to be improved further; the quality of MODIS land cover products across China still does not meet the common requirements of climate modeling. Our findings may have important implications for improving land surface parameterization for simulating climate and for better understanding the influence of the land cover change on climate.

Efficient Authenticated Key Agreement Protocol Using Self-Certified Public Keys from Pairings

An efficient authenticated key agreement protocol is proposed, which makesuse of bilinear pairings and self-certificd public keys. Its security is based on the securityassumptions of the bilinear Diff ie-Hellman problem and the computational Diffie-Hellman problem.Users can choose their private keys independently. The public keys and identities of users can beverified implicitly when the session key being generating in a logically single step. A trusted KeyGeneration Center is no longer requiredas in the ID-based authenticated key agreement protocolsCompared with existing authenticated key agreement protocols from pairings, the. new proposedprotocol is more efficient and secure.

Breaking and Repairing the Certificateless Key Agreement Protocol from ASIAN 2006

The certificateless authenticated key agreement protocol proposed by Mandt et al does not haVE the property of key-compromise impersonation （K-CI） resilience. An improved protocol with a simple modification of their protocol is proposed in this paper. In particular, our improved protocol is proved to be immune to the K-CI attack and at the same time possess other security properties.

Repeatability and agreement of CCT measurement in myopia using entacam and ultrasound pachymetry

AIM: To evaluate the repeatability of central corneal thickness (CCT) measurement by entacam, and agreement of CCT measured by Pentacam and ultrasound pachymetry (USP) in Chinese myopia. Thereby investigate the possibility of Pentacam as a substitute for USP in CCT measurement before refractive surgery. The effects of corneal curvature measured by Pentacam on CCT were also evaluated. METHODS: One hundred and forty-eight right eyes of 148 individual with myopia were included in this study. Three successive Pentacam CCT measurements followed by 10 successive ultrasound pachymetry were carried out in the 148 eyes. Mean of CCT taken by each device was calculated for comparison. According to the CCT measured by USP, all the 148 eyes were divided into 3 groups: <520 mu m, 520-560 mu m, >560 mu m. For all eyes and each group the CCT obtained by Pentacam and USP were compared. Anterior corneal curvature of the 148 eyes was also adopted for correlation analysis with CCT obtained by ultrasound pachymetry. In addition, CCT measurement using 60 random selected Scheimpflug images was performed by 3 skilled investigators at different time, and this was repeated for 3 times by a forth investigator to assess repeatability of Pentacam CCT measurement using Scheimpflug images. RESULTS: Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis revealed high intraobserver repeatability (ICC=0.994, F=158.60, P<0.001) for CCT measurement by Pentacam. The interobserver (ICC=0.998, F =494.73, P <0.001) and intraobserver (ICC=0.997, F=383.98, P<0.001) repeatability for Pentacam CCT measurements using Scheimpflug images were also excellent. There was high positive correlation between the CCT values measured by Pentacam and ultrasound pachymetry (r=0.963, P<0.001). Bland-altman plots showed that the Pentacam underestimate the CCT by 8.02 mu m compared with ultrasouond pachymetry.The differences between Pentacam and USP increased as the CCT readings by USP increased (Pentacam vs USP: slope=-0.04, P< 0.05). The 95% upper and lower limits of agreement between CCT values obtained from the two devices were +9. 33 mu m and -25.37 mu m. No significant association could be found between CCT and anterior corneal curvature. CONCLUSION: Inter- and intraobserver variability for CCT measurements by Pentacam was considerably below clinically significant levels. CCT of myopia obtained by Scheimpflug camera, Pentacam, were highly correlated to that by ultrasound pachymetry. However, the values obtained are not directly interchangeable between Pentacam and ultrasound pachymetry as the 95% limits of agreement are relatively wide. Pentacam can be a useful instrument for measuring CCT in candidates to refractive surgery in clinic.

A Provably Secure Identity-based Authentication Multiple Key Agreement Protocol

An authentication multiple key agreement protocol allows the users to compute more than one session keys in an authentication way. In the paper,an identity-based authentication multiple key agreement protocol is proposed. Its authentication part is proven secure against existential forgery on adaptively chosen message and ID attacks under the random oracle model upon the CDH assumptions. The session keys are proven secure in a formal CK security model under the random oracle model upon the CBDH assumptions. Compared with the previous multiple key agreement protocols,it requires less communication cost.

The Homomorphic Key Agreement

There are various challenges that are faced in group communication, so it is necessary to ensure session key. Key agreement is the fundamental cryptographic primitive for establishing a secure communication. It is a process of computing a shared secret contributed by two or more entities such that no single node can predetermine the resulting value. An authenticated key agreement is attained by combining the key agreement protocol with digital signatures. After a brief introduction to existing key agreement in group communication, Making use of the additive-multiplicative homomorphism in the integer ring defined by Sander and Tschudin: A new protocols, called the homomorphism key agreement, was designed, which can be self-contributory, robust, scalable and applicable in group communication.

Intraexaminer repeatability and agreement in stereoacuity measurements made in young adults

AIM: To determine the repeatability and agreement of stereoacuity measurements made using some of the most widely used clinical tests: Frisby, TNO, Randot and Titmus.METHODS: Stereoacuity was measured in two different sessions separated by a time interval of at least 24 h but no longer than 1wk in 74 subjects of mean age 20.6y using the four methods. The study participants were divided into two groups: subjects with normal binocular vision and subjects with abnormal binocular vision.RESULTS: Best repeatability was shown by the Frisby and Titmus [coefficient of repeatability(COR): ±13 and±12s arc respectively] in the subjects with normal binocular vision though a clear ceiling effect was noted.In the subjects with abnormal binocular vision, best repeatability was shown by the Frisby(COR: ±69s arc)and Randot(COR: ±72s arc). In both groups, the TNO test showed poorest agreement with the other tests.CONCLUSION:Therepeatabilityofstereoacuitymeasures was low in subjects with poor binocular vision yet fairly good in subjects with normal binocular vision with the exception of the TNO test. The reduced agreement detected between the tests indicates they cannot be used interchangeably.

Extended Asymmetric Group Key Agreement for Dynamic Groups and Its Applications

Group Key Agreement(GKA)is a cryptographic primitive allowing two or more entities to negotiate a shared session key over public networks.In existing GKA models,it is an open problem to construct a one-round multi-party GKA protocol.Wu et al.recently proposed the concept of asymmetric group key agreement(ASGKA)and realized a one-round ASGKA protocol,which affirmatively answers the above open problem in a relaxed way.However,the ASGKA protocol only applies to static groups.To fill this gap,this paper proposes an extended ASGKA protocol based on the Wu et al.protocol.The extension allows any member to join and leave at any point,provided that the resulting group size is not greater than n.To validate the proposal,extensive experiments are performed and the experimental results show that our protocol is more effective than a plain realization of the Wu et al.protocol for dynamic groups.The extended protocol is also more efficient than the up-to-date dynamic GKA protocol in terms of communication and computation.

The withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and its impact on global climate change governance

The global community has prepared for the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement since Donald Trump was elected as the president of the U.S. However, Trump's formal declaration of withdrawal still caused worldwide reaction. Trump will use the withdrawal to build his political reputation and to renegotiate the Paris Agreement despite its negative effects on the political credibility, international relationships, and potential long-term economic growth of the U.S. In general, the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement will not change the development of low-carbon technologies and the transformation trend of the global climate governance regime. However, the long-term goals and international cooperation on climate change will be affected by budget cuts in American climate change research and the cancelation of donations from the multilateral environmental fund of the U.S. If the Paris Agreement is renegotiated, the common but differentiated principle of responsibility of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be challenged again. Nevertheless, climate change governance remains a main theme of future sustainable development. Instead of national governments, local governments and non-governmental organizations will develop strategies for technical innovation and emphasize pragmatic cooperation, thus expanding their roles in climate change governance. The capacity building on climate change research and public awareness should be enhanced as a long-term objective of global climate change governance.