A Blockchain-Based Access Control Scheme for Reputation Value Attributes of the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things(IoT)access controlmechanism may encounter security issues such as single point of failure and data tampering.To address these issues,a blockchain-based IoT reputation value attribute access control scheme is proposed.Firstly,writing the reputation value as an attribute into the access control policy,and then deploying the access control policy in the smart contract of the blockchain system can enable the system to provide more fine-grained access control;Secondly,storing a large amount of resources fromthe Internet of Things in Inter Planetary File System(IPFS)to improve system throughput;Finally,map resource access operations to qualification tokens to improve the performance of the access control system.Complete simulation experiments based on the Hyperledger Fabric platform.Fromthe simulation experimental results,it can be seen that the access control system can achieve more fine-grained and dynamic access control while maintaining high throughput and low time delay,providing sufficient reliability and security for access control of IoT devices.

The impact of Internet access on household dietary quality:Evidence from rural China

Over the past few decades,the Internet has rapidly diffused across China.The spread of the Internet has had a profound economic and social impact on Chinese rural areas.Existing research shows that Internet access significantly impacts agricultural production and improves smallholder farmers’income.Beyond these,the Internet can affect other dimensions of social welfare.However,research about the impact of Internet access on dietary quality in rural China remains scarce.This study utilizes multi-period panel data from Fixed Observation Point in rural China from 2009 to 2015 to estimate the impact of Internet access on dietary quality and food consumption of rural households and conducts a causal analysis.Regression models with time and household fixed effects allow robust estimation while reducing potential issues of unobserved heterogeneity.The estimates show that Internet access has significantly increased rural household dietary quality(measured by the Chinese Diet Balance Index).Further research finds that Internet access has increased the consumption of animal products,such as aquatic and dairy products.We also examine the underlying mechanisms.Internet access improves dietary quality and food consumption mainly through increasing household income and food expenditure.These results encourage the promotion of Internet access as a valuable tool for nutritional improvements,especially in rural areas.

Assessing the Spatial Equality of COVID Testing Sites Maintaining Zero COVID Policy

Rapid and timely testing is essential to minimize the COVID-19 spread. Decision makers and policy planners need to determine the equal distribution and accessibility of testing sites. This study mainly examines the spatial equality of COVID-19 testing sites that maintain a zero COVID policy in Guangzhou City. The study has identified the spatial disparities of COVID testing sites, characteristics of testing locations, and accessibility. The study has obtained information on COVID testing sites in Guangzhou City and population data. Point pattern analyses, Euclidian distance and allocation, and network analyses are the main methods used to achieve the research objectives, and 1183 total COVID testing sites can be recognized in Guangzhou City. Results revealed that spatial disparities could be noticed over the study area. Testing locations of Guangzhou City are highly clustered. The most significant testing sites are located in Haizhu District, which has the third largest population. The highest population density can be identified in Yuexiu District. However, only 94 testing sites are located there. According to all the results, higher disparities can be identified, and a lack of testing sites is located in the north part of the study area. Some people in the northern part have to travel more than 10 km to reach a testing site. Finally, this paper suggests increasing the number of testing sites in the north and south parts of the study area and keeping the same distribution, considering the area, total population, and population density. This kind of research will be helpful to decision-makers in making proper decisions to maintain a zero COVID policy.

The study of lithographic variation in resistive random access memory

Reducing the process variation is a significant concern for resistive random access memory(RRAM).Due to its ultrahigh integration density,RRAM arrays are prone to lithographic variation during the lithography process,introducing electrical variation among different RRAM devices.In this work,an optical physical verification methodology for the RRAM array is developed,and the effects of different layout parameters on important electrical characteristics are systematically investigated.The results indicate that the RRAM devices can be categorized into three clusters according to their locations and lithography environments.The read resistance is more sensitive to the locations in the array(~30%)than SET/RESET voltage(<10%).The increase in the RRAM device length and the application of the optical proximity correction technique can help to reduce the variation to less than 10%,whereas it reduces RRAM read resistance by 4×,resulting in a higher power and area consumption.As such,we provide design guidelines to minimize the electrical variation of RRAM arrays due to the lithography process.

Characterization of Small-Scale Farmers and Assessment of Their Access to Crop Production Information in Selected Counties of Kenya

Small-scale farming accounts for 78% of total agricultural production in Kenya and contributes to 23.5% of the country’s GDP. Their crop production activities are mostly rainfed subsistence with any surplus being sold to bring in some income. Timely decisions on farm practices such as farm preparation and planting are critical determinants of the seasonal outcomes. In Kenya, most small-scale farmers have no reliable source of information that would help them make timely and accurate decisions. County governments have extension officers who are mandated with giving farmers advisory services to farmers but they are not able to reach most farmers due to facilitation constraints. The mode and format of sharing information is also critical since it’s important to ensure that it’s timely, well-understood and usable. This study sought to assess access to geospatial derived and other crop production information by farmers in four selected counties of Kenya. Specific objectives were to determine the profile of small-scale farmers in terms of age, education and farm size;to determine the type of information that is made available to them by County and Sub-County extension officers including the format and mode of provision;and to determine if the information provided was useful in terms of accuracy, timeliness and adequacy. The results indicated that over 80% of the farmers were over 35 years of age and over 56% were male. Majority had attained primary education (34%) or secondary education (29%) and most farmers in all the counties grew maize (71%). Notably, fellow farmers were a source of information (71%) with the frequency of sharing information being mostly seasonal (37%) and when information was available (43%). Over 66% of interviewed farmers indicating that they faced challenges while using provided information. The results from the study are insightful and helpful in determining effective ways of providing farmers with useful information to ensure maximum benefits.

Facing ethical concerns in the age of precise gene therapy:Outlook on inherited arrhythmias

This editorial,comments on the article by Spartalis et al published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Cardiology.We here provide an outlook on potential ethical concerns related to the future application of gene therapy in the field of inherited arrhythmias.As monogenic diseases with no or few therapeutic options available through standard care,inherited arrhythmias are ideal candidates to gene therapy in their treatment.Patients with inherited arrhythmias typically have a poor quality of life,especially young people engaged in agonistic sports.While genome editing for treatment of inherited arrhythmias still has theoretical application,advances in CRISPR/Cas9 technology now allows the generation of knock-in animal models of the disease.However,clinical translation is somehow expected soon and this make consistent discussing about ethical concerns related to gene editing in inherited arrhythmias.Genomic off-target activity is a known technical issue,but its relationship with ethnical and individual genetical diversity raises concerns about an equitable accessibility.Meanwhile,the costeffectiveness may further limit an equal distribution of gene therapies.The economic burden of gene therapies on healthcare systems is is increasingly recognized as a pressing concern.A growing body of studies are reporting uncertainty in payback periods with intuitive short-term effects for insurance-based healthcare systems,but potential concerns for universal healthcare systems in the long term as well.Altogether,those aspects strongly indicate a need of regulatory entities to manage those issues.

Accessibility and Fairness of Public Service Facilities from the Perspective of Supply and Demand Coordination: A Case Study of Old Urban Area of Guangzhou City

The accessibility and fairness of public service facilities are important manifestations of the convenience and equality of urban public service resource allocation.Optimizing the layout of urban public service facilities is an inevitable requirement for promoting the construction of people centered cities.This paper takes the old urban area of Guangzhou as the research area,measures the accessibility of multiple types of public service facilities based on an improved two-step floating catchment method,and combines Palma Ratio and location quotient methods to explore the fairness of urban public service facilities from two dimensions:social equity and spatial equity,with supply and demand relationship analysis as the main line.Research has shown that:①there is a significant spatial difference in the accessibility of public service facilities in the old urban areas of Guangzhou,and the comprehensive accessibility is generally higher in the central and southeastern regions of the old urban areas with fewer residential populations;②from the perspective of social equity,the resource allocation of public service facilities in the old urban areas of Guangzhou is in a seriously unfair state(with a fairness index of 2.99),and there are also varying degrees of unfairness within the streets;③from the perspective of spatial equity,the location quotient of public service facilities in the old urban areas of Guangzhou shows a pattern of multil center circles decreasing,indicating a significant spatial mismatch between the accessibility supply side of public service facilities and the demand side of the residential population.The research conclusion will provide scientific basis for optimizing the allocation of urban public service facilities and ensuring the equalization of public services.

Influence of Heavy Fuel Oil on the Thermo-Physical and Erodibility Properties of Earthen Materials

This study focuses on the use of heavy fuel oil in construction material in Burkina Faso. Its mixture with silty or clayey soil is used as a coating to reinforce the walls of raw earth constructions which are very sensitive to water. The interest of this study is to determine erodibility, water content, while highlighting the influence of the porosity accessible by water on thermal diffusion in construction material containing heavy fuel oil. The heavy fuel oil was mixed with a silty-clayey soil, in different proportions, and water to make bricks samples on which tests were carried out. At the end of the experimental tests, it appears that the water content increases gradually, but not significantly with the addition of heavy fuel oil, which causes a slight increase in the speed of heat propagation through the material with reduced porosity, particularly those containing higher quantities of heavy fuel oil. Conversely, we note a good performance of heavy fuel oil in terms of water resistance properties such as porosity accessible by water and erodibility. This allows us to conclude that the mixture of heavy fuel oil and silty-clayey soil used as a coating material could greatly reduce water infiltration into the walls of housing constructions with raw earthen materials.

Use of Geosynthetic Access Mats in Construction

A stable surface to move manpower and equipment is a key for the construction operations. To create a stable road surface, the road construction techniques are time-consuming and expensive for a traditional construction which requires compaction of soil, aggregate base, sub-base and asphaltic layers. A Geosynthetic Access Mat (GAM) system can serve as an alternative to other traditional construction techniques to accommodate temporary construction. Due to its rigidity, the mat system can provide substantial vertical resistance to the applied load under a large deflection subject to soil conditions. This paper provides details of GAM specifications, soil conditions, applications, installation procedure, comparison with other soil stabilization methods and Aramco experience for deployments of these mats.

Regarding the Regulatory Sandbox Route and Mechanism for Governance of Artificial Intelligence

The main challenge in AI governance today is striking a balance between controlling AI dangers and fostering AI innovation.Regulators in a number of nations have progressively extended the regulatory sandbox,which was first implemented in the banking sector,to AI governance in an effort to reduce the conflict between regulation and innovation.The AI regulatory sandbox is a new and feasible route for AI governance in China that not only helps to manage the risks of technology application but also prevents inhibiting AI innovation.It keeps inventors'trial-and-error tolerance space inside the regulatory purview while offering a controlled setting for the development and testing of novel AI that hasn't yet been put on the market.By providing full-cycle governance of AI with the principles of agility and inclusive prudence,the regulatory sandbox offers an alternative to the conventional top-down hard regulation,expost regulation,and tight regulation.However,the current system also has inherent limitations and practical obstacles that need to be overcome by a more rational and effective approach.To achieve its positive impact on AI governance,the AI regulatory sandbox system should build and improve the access and exit mechanism,the coordination mechanism between the sandbox and personal information protection,and the mechanisms of exemption,disclosure,and communication.

2023:A year of accomplishments for the 13 Science Citation Index Expanded-and Emerging Sources Citation Index-indexed Baishideng journals

In 2023,Baishideng Publishing Group(Baishideng)routinely published 47 openaccess journals,including 46 English-language journals and 1 Chinese-language journal.Our successes were accomplished through the collective dedicated efforts of Baishideng staffs,Editorial Board Members,and Peer Reviewers.Among these 47 Baishideng journals,7 are included in the Science Citation Index Expanded(SCIE)and 6 in the Emerging Sources Citation Index(ESCI).With the support of Baishideng authors,company staffs,Editorial Board Members,and Peer Reviewers,the publication work of 2023 is about to be successfully completed.This editorial summarizes the 2023 activities and accomplishments of the 13 SCIEand ESCI-indexed Baishideng journals,outlines the Baishideng publishing policy changes and additions made this year,and highlights the unique advantages of Baishideng journals.

Analysis of Drug Medical Insurance Access Pricing Based on the Perspective of Binary Equilibrium

Objective To study the influencing factors in the process of national medical insurance negotiation and drug pricing from the dualistic equilibrium perspective,and to provide reference for the harmonious management of drug pricing in China.Methods Through the literature analysis and policy review,the pricing subject,pricing basis and price control system in the pricing process of medical-accessed medicines were analyzed from the perspective of binary equilibrium and harmonious management.Results and Conclusion It is found that four balances in the drug pricing process,two balances in pricing basis and three balances in price control system need to be considered,respectively.Drug pricing is the key content of national medical insurance access,which is also the hotspot of the policy in the pharmaceutical fields in recent years.Drug pricing not only reflects the value of drugs,but also reflects a lot of top-level designs of binary equilibriums in medical insurance policy.While the rational design of drug pricing requires the joint efforts of the government,pharmaceutical companies and relevant experts to comprehensively consider many equilibriums,so as to improve the relevant systems.

Affordability, Accessibility, and Quality of Maternal Health Care Services and Level of Satisfaction of Mothers in Rural Areas in China

Objective:This study aimed to understand the affordability,accessibility,and quality of maternal and child health services for postpartum mothers,and their impact on satisfaction.Methods:The study utilized the Anderson model and revised the Maternal Pregnancy and Perinatal Health Service Questionnaire.A survey was conducted among 289 mothers aged 20–49 in Feicheng City.Results:Regarding accessibility,most respondents(133)reported that travel time to healthcare services exceeded 60 minutes,while 99 respondents indicated a travel time of 16–30 minutes.The issue of affordability was highlighted,with 86.85%of participants perceiving maternal healthcare services as costly,indicating a significant financial burden.More than 50%of respondents were satisfied with two specific dimensions(P<0.05)regarding the quality of maternal healthcare services.Conclusion:The study found that accessibility,affordability,and quality significantly affect mothers’satisfaction with maternal health services.Future research should focus on developing more suitable service pathways for rural mothers.

Study on the Influence of Lanzhou-Urumqi High-Speed Railway on Regional Accessibility and Economic Development

The Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway is an important part of the railway network connecting Gansu,Qinghai,and Xinjiang,and it is of far-reaching significance in facilitating China’s western development.An accessibility model and a double difference model were built to analyze the impact of the Lanzhou-Urumqi high-speed railway on regional accessibility and economic development of the areas along the line before(2012-2014)and after(2017-2019)its opening.The results show that the regional accessibility remains unchanged before and after the operation of this railway line.However,there is a spatial difference in improvement,that of central cities being better.The opening of the high-speed railway is conducive to driving the overall economic development of the region and promoting the comprehensive and coordinated development of regional economies.

Optimized CUDA Implementation to Improve the Performance of Bundle Adjustment Algorithm on GPUs

The 3D reconstruction pipeline uses the Bundle Adjustment algorithm to refine the camera and point parameters. The Bundle Adjustment algorithm is a compute-intensive algorithm, and many researchers have improved its performance by implementing the algorithm on GPUs. In the previous research work, “Improving Accuracy and Computational Burden of Bundle Adjustment Algorithm using GPUs,” the authors demonstrated first the Bundle Adjustment algorithmic performance improvement by reducing the mean square error using an additional radial distorting parameter and explicitly computed analytical derivatives and reducing the computational burden of the Bundle Adjustment algorithm using GPUs. The naïve implementation of the CUDA code, a speedup of 10× for the largest dataset of 13,678 cameras, 4,455,747 points, and 28,975,571 projections was achieved. In this paper, we present the optimization of the Bundle Adjustment algorithm CUDA code on GPUs to achieve higher speedup. We propose a new data memory layout for the parameters in the Bundle Adjustment algorithm, resulting in contiguous memory access. We demonstrate that it improves the memory throughput on the GPUs, thereby improving the overall performance. We also demonstrate an increase in the computational throughput of the algorithm by optimizing the CUDA kernels to utilize the GPU resources effectively. A comparative performance study of explicitly computing an algorithm parameter versus using the Jacobians instead is presented. In the previous work, the Bundle Adjustment algorithm failed to converge for certain datasets due to several block matrices of the cameras in the augmented normal equation, resulting in rank-deficient matrices. In this work, we identify the cameras that cause rank-deficient matrices and preprocess the datasets to ensure the convergence of the BA algorithm. Our optimized CUDA implementation achieves convergence of the Bundle Adjustment algorithm in around 22 seconds for the largest dataset compared to 654 seconds for the sequential implementation, resulting in a speedup of 30×. Our optimized CUDA implementation presented in this paper has achieved a 3× speedup for the largest dataset compared to the previous naïve CUDA implementation.

Impact of the economic crisis and drug shortage on Lebanese cancer patients’care

BACKGROUND As a consequence of the economic crisis,the sociopolitical instability and the advent of the coronavirus disease-19 pandemic,nested challenges faced the Lebanese healthcare system.These have resulted in critical shortages of essential resources,including medications vital for oncologic patients.AIM To assess the ramifications of the ongoing economic crisis on oncology patient care focusing on our outpatient oncology department.METHODS A questionnaire was distributed during the month of February 2022 to oncology patients in Hôtel Dieu de France University Hospital in Beirut during their outpatient therapy.The primary objective was to assess the far-reaching impact of the economic crisis on patient care and the resulting psychological implications.RESULTS Among 182 interviewed patients,31.87%experienced treatment interruption mainly due to acute drug shortages.Despite 87.91%of the patients benefiting from third-party coverage,69.60%had to self-pay for their medications leading to 69.78%of patients perceiving that healthcare was more difficult to access after 2020.Psychologically,one-third of the patients exhibited symptoms of anxiety and/or depression,with 7 patients reporting suicidal ideations.Notably,37.93%of patients who interrupted cancer treatment reported a history of comorbidities,and 89.66%who altered their treatment cited financial difficulties.CONCLUSION Lebanese cancer patients face complex challenges spanning economic,healthcare,and psychological realms.Income inequalities exacerbated by the economic crisis hindered healthcare access.

Bridging the gap: Addressing disparities in hepatitis C screening, access to care, and treatment outcomes

Hepatitis C virus(HCV)is a significant public health challenge globally,with substantial morbidity and mortality due to chronic liver disease.Despite the availability of highly effective and well-tolerated direct-acting antiviral therapies,widespread disparities remain in hepatitis C screening,access to treatment,linkage to care,and therapeutic outcomes.This review article synthesizes evi-dence from various studies to highlight the multifactorial nature of these dispari-ties,which affects ethnic minorities,people with lower socioeconomic status,in-dividuals with substance use disorders,and those within correctional facilities.The review also discusses policy implications and targeted strategies needed to overcome barriers and ensure equitable care for all individuals with HCV.Recom-mendations for future research to address gaps in knowledge and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions designed to reduce disparities are provided.

Framework to Model User Request Access Patterns in the World Wide Web

In this paper, we present a novel approach to model user request patterns in the World Wide Web. Instead of focusing on the user traffic for web pages, we capture the user interaction at the object level of the web pages. Our framework model consists of three sub-models: one for user file access, one for web pages, and one for storage servers. Web pages are assumed to consist of different types and sizes of objects, which are characterized using several categories: articles, media, and mosaics. The model is implemented with a discrete event simulation and then used to investigate the performance of our system over a variety of parameters in our model. Our performance measure of choice is mean response time and by varying the composition of web pages through our categories, we find that our framework model is able to capture a wide range of conditions that serve as a basis for generating a variety of user request patterns. In addition, we are able to establish a set of parameters that can be used as base cases. One of the goals of this research is for the framework model to be general enough that the parameters can be varied such that it can serve as input for investigating other distributed applications that require the generation of user request access patterns.

Identifying the uneven distribution of health and education services in China using open geospatial data

Growing attention has been directed to the use of satellite imagery and open geospatial data to understand large-scale sustainable development outcomes.Health and education are critical domains of the Unites Nations’Sus-tainable Development Goals(SDGs),yet existing research on the accessibility of corresponding services focused mainly on detailed but small-scale studies.This means that such studies lack accessibility metrics for large-scale quantitative evaluations.To address this deficiency,we evaluated the accessibility of health and education ser-vices in China's Mainland in 2021 using point-of-interest data,OpenStreetMap road data,land cover data,and WorldPop spatial demographic data.The accessibility metrics used were the least time costs of reaching hospital and school services and population coverage with a time cost of less than 1 h.On the basis of the road network and land cover information,the overall average time costs of reaching hospital and school were 20 and 22 min,respectively.In terms of population coverage,94.7%and 92.5%of the population in China has a time cost of less than 1 h in obtaining hospital and school services,respectively.Counties with low accessibility to hospitals and schools were highly coupled with poor areas and ecological function regions,with the time cost incurred in these areas being more than twice that experienced in non-poor and non-ecological areas.Furthermore,the cumulative time cost incurred by the bottom 20%of counties(by GDP)from access to hospital and school services reached approximately 80%of the national total.Low-GDP counties were compelled to suffer disproportionately increased time costs to acquire health and education services compared with high-GDP counties.The accessibil-ity metrics proposed in this study are highly related to SDGs 3 and 4,and they can serve as auxiliary data that can be used to enhance the evaluation of SDG outcomes.The analysis of the uneven distribution of health and education services in China can help identify areas with backward public services and may contribute to targeted and efficient policy interventions.

GIS-Based Analysis to Identify the Distribution and Accessibility of Urban Green Space in Dhaka Metropolitan City, Bangladesh

Urban Green Space (UGS) plays an important role in minimizing the negative effects of urbanization on city dwellers, which is predominantly factored into the accessibility to UGS. This study elucidated the distribution and accessibility of UGS in Dhaka, Bangladesh considering the paucity of such important scientific studies in the given area. The methodological structure of this study employed a multispectral Landsat satellite image from 2020 for identifying the logically defined UGSs, as well as a minimum proxy distance being the parameter to estimate accessibility to the UGS through a primary survey scheme and literature review. Considering UGS as a public area, we adopted a hybrid (combination of supervised and unsupervised classification) method followed by post-classification for UGS distribution assessment. The unsupervised classification identified the overall distribution of green spaces, whereas the anomalies of generated classes were rectified during the post-classification. Following the study findings, UGS in Dhaka metropolitan city accounts for only 602 ha or 1.9% of the total geographical space, with Ramna thana ranked as the highest contributor of 111 ha. However, in terms of accessibility to the UGS by city residents, 19.9% of the buildings in Dhaka metropolitan city were computed to be within the determined proxy distance of 500 m around the UGS. Also, parallel to UGS distribution, green space in Ramna thana (111 ha) exhibited the highest accessibility rate (64%) to the UGS compared with other thanas in Dhaka metropolitan city. The baseline findings will contribute to the long-term sustainable urban planning and development of more accessible green spaces in the study area.