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.

How Do the Participant Relations Affect Adjacency Pairs?

This paper will briefly discuss the issue of how different participant relations affect adjacency pairs in conversation analysis.In terms of the affects or influence on adjacency pairs,this article only places its focus on the ways how the first pair part (FPP) and second pair part (SPP) in conversation are relevant to each other.As for the final result,the data back up such conclusions:in conversation between acquaintance /friends,family members,and as such,the relevance are built up either directly or indirectly.However,in conversation between strangers,this relevance seems to be constructed only directly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Promoting the Education of Legal Professionals for International Arbitration in China--The 15th CIETAC Cup Had Record Number of New Participants

On November 20 to 24,2017,the 15th CIETAC CUP International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition,hosted by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission(CIETAC),was held in Beijing.Wang Chengjie,deputy director and secretary general of CIETAC,noted,during the award ceremony on the evening of

The Dilemmas of Using Covert and Overt Participant Observation in Qualitative Research: Effects and Strategies

Participant observation is often applied in qualitative research to help researchers obtain the overall,useful data,which will lead researchers to gain the knowledge that the academia tries to.However,different levels of participant observation,mainly the covert and overt participant observation,have aroused heated discussions among scholars.Field researchers are faced with many problems when doing research,such as whether they should be a covert participant observer or an overt one;what the research will get when they are in different roles and etc.In order to solve those problems,this article tries to provide some effective methods to field researchers,especially to the new ones.This article mainly talks about two types of participant observation:covert and overt participant observation;tries to explore the issues caused by them and the strategies to help researchers deal with such issues.Finally,in qualitative research,when faced with different fieldworks,researchers should adapt themselves to choosing participant roles flexibly and appropriately.

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.

Joint Participant Selection and Learning Optimization for Federated Learning of Multiple Models in Edge Cloud

To overcome the limitations of long latency and privacy concerns from cloud computing,edge computing along with distributed machine learning such as federated learning(FL),has gained much attention and popularity in academia and industry.Most existing work on FL over the edge mainly focuses on optimizing the training of one shared global model in edge systems.However,with the increasing applications of FL in edge systems,there could be multiple FL models from different applications concurrently being trained in the shared edge cloud.Such concurrent training of these FL models can lead to edge resource competition(for both computing and network resources),and further affect the FL training performance of each other.Therefore,in this paper,considering a multi-model FL scenario,we formulate a joint participant selection and learning optimization problem in a shared edge cloud.This joint optimization aims to determine FL participants and the learning schedule for each FL model such that the total training cost of all FL models in the edge cloud is minimized.We propose a multi-stage optimization framework by decoupling the original problem into two or three subproblems that can be solved respectively and iteratively.Extensive evaluation has been conducted with realworld FL datasets and models.The results have shown that our proposed algorithms can reduce the total cost efficiently compared with prior algorithms.

A Survey on Task and Participant Matching in Mobile Crowd Sensing

Mobile crowd sensing is an innovative paradigm which leverages the crowd, i.e., a large group of people with their mobile devices, to sense various information in the physical world. With the help of sensed information, many tasks can be fulfilled in an efficient manner, such as environment monitoring, traffic prediction, and indoor localization. Task and participant matching is an important issue in mobile crowd sensing, because it determines the quality and efficiency of a mobile crowd sensing task. Hence, numerous matching strategies have been proposed in recent research work. This survey aims to provide an up-to-date view on this topic. We propose a research framework for the matching problem in this paper, including participant model, task model, and solution design. The participant model is made up of three kinds of participant characters, i.e., attributes, requirements, and supplements. The task models are separated according to application backgrounds and objective functions. Offline and online solutions in recent literatures are both discussed. Some open issues are introduced, including matching strategy for heterogeneous tasks, context-aware matching, online strategy, and leveraging historical data to finish new tasks.

Calcium requirements for Chinese adults by cross-sectional statistical analyses of calcium balance studies： an individual participant data and aggregate data meta-regression

Background Chinese dietary reference intakes for calcium are largely based on foreign studies. We undertook meta- regression to estimate calcium requirements for Chinese adults derived from calcium balance data in Chinese adults. Methods We searched PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, and SinoMed from inception to March 5, 2014, by using a structured search strategy. The bibliographies of any relevant papers and journals were also screened for potentially eligible studies. We extracted a standardized data set from studies in Chinese adults that reported calcium balance data. The relationship between calcium intake and output was examined by an individual participant data （IPD） and aggregate data （AD） meta-regression. Results We identified 11 metabolic studies in Chinese adults within 18-60 years of age. One hundred and forty-one IPD （n=35） expressed as mg/d, 127 IPD （n=32） expressed as mg.kg body wt-l-d-1, and 44 AD （n=132） expressed as mg/d were collected. The models predicted a neutral calcium balance （defined as calcium output （Y） equal to calcium intake （C）） at intakes of 460 mg/d （Y=0.60C＋183.98） and 8.27 mg.kg body wt-l.d-1 （Y=0.60C＋3.33） for IPD, or 409 mg/d （Y=0.66C＋139.00） for AD. Calcium requirements at upper intakes were higher than that at lower intakes in all these models. Conclusion Calcium requirement for Chinese adults 18-60 years of age approximately ranges between 400 mg/d and 500 mg/d when consuming traditional plant-based Chinese diets.

Participant attack on the deterministic measurement-device-independent quantum secret sharing protocol

In a recent article[Gao et al.,Sci.China-Phys.Mech.Astron.63,120311(2020)],a two-receiver measurement-deviceindependent quantum secret sharing(MDI-QSS)protocol was presented.It was proven to be secure against eavesdropping and generalized to the multireceiver case.However,the participant attack is a fatal threat to QSS protocols.Here,we highlight that a dishonest participant can obtain a sender’s secret message alone without introducing any detectable error,evidencing the vulnerability of the MDI-QSS protocol to the participant attack.

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.

Factors influencing willingness to participate in ophthalmic clinical trials and strategies for effective recruitment

AIM:To explore the factors influencing individuals’willingness to participate in ophthalmic clinical trials.METHODS:A questionnaire survey was conducted from January to April 2021 among patients and their family members at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center,Sun Yat-sen University,in Guangzhou,China.The survey gathered data on respondents’willingness,demographic and socioeconomic profiles,as well as their reasons and concerns regarding engagement in clinical trials.RESULTS:Of the 1078 residents surveyed(mean age 31.2±13.1y;65.8%females)in Guangzhou,749(69.5%)expressed a willingness to participate in future ophthalmic clinical trials.Specific characteristics associated with greater willingness included a younger age,lower annual income,higher education,prior participation experience,previous ophthalmic treatment,and a better understanding of clinical trials.With the exception of age,these characteristics were significantly linked to a higher willingness.The primary barrier to participation,expressed by 64.8%of those willing and 54.4%of those unwilling,was“Uncertain efficacy”.In terms of motivations,the willing group ranked“Better therapeutic benefits”(35.0%),“Professional monitoring”(34.3%),and“Trust in healthcare professionals”(33.1%)as their top three reasons,whereas the unwilling participants indicated“Full comprehension of the protocol”(46.2%)as the key facilitator.CONCLUSION:This study reveals a substantial willingness to participate in ophthalmic clinical trials and demonstrates the predictive role of demographic and socioeconomic factors.Variations in motivators and concerns between willing and unwilling participants highlight the significance of tailored recruitment strategies.Importantly,the need for and trust in healthcare professionals stand out as powerful motivations,underscoring the importance of enhancing physician-patient relationships,adopting patient-centered communication approaches,and addressing individualized needs to improve accrual rates.

Research on Cultural Consumption and Urban Integration of Floating Population

This paper examined the relationship between cultural consumption and the floating population’s integration into host cities based on data from China’s Seventh National Population Census and the 2018 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS).The findings indicate that improving the floating population’s consumption level and quality,especially the quality of development-oriented cultural consumption,can significantly improve the level of their integration.Moreover,development-oriented cultural consumption has a positive effect on the floating population’s integration and social participation,while entertainment-oriented cultural consumption facilitates their integration mainly by improving their sense of well-being.These findings could guide policymakers in developing targeted cultural consumption policies,implementing specific regional industry adjustments,and expanding domestic consumption demand.

In the Middle of Global Governance Indonesia is actively participating in global governance reform through the MIKTA middle power grouping

In March 2023,Indonesia took over the chairmanship of MIKTA from Turkiye,marking the second time Indonesia has served as the rotating chair of a global governance mechanism,following the Bali G20 Summit in 2022.