Coding Protocol Research Articles

Efficacy of Mapping Grassland Vegetation for Land Managers and Wildlife Researchers Using sUAS

The proliferation of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) is making very high-resolution imagery attainable for vegetation classifications, potentially allowing land managers to monitor vegetation in response to management or wildlife activities and offering researchers opportunities to further examine relationships among wildlife species and their habitats. The broad adoption of sUAS for remote sensing among these groups may be hampered by complex coding, expensive equipment, and time-consuming protocols. We used a consumer sUAS, semiautomated flight planning software, and graphical user interface GIS software to classify grassland vegetation with the aim of providing a user-friendly framework for managers and ecological researchers. We compared the overall accuracy from classifications using this sUAS imagery (89.22%) to classifications using freely available National Agriculture Imagery Program imagery (76.25%) to inform decisions about cost and accuracy. We also compared overall accuracy between manual classification (89.22%) and random forest classification (69.26%) to aid with similar decisions. Finally, we examined the impact of resolution and the addition of a canopy height model on classification accuracy, obtaining mixed results. Our findings can help new users make informed choices about imagery sources and methodologies, and our protocols can serve as a template for those groups wanting to perform similar vegetation classifications on grassland sites without the need for survey-grade equipment or coding. These should help more land managers and researchers obtain appropriate grassland vegetation classifications for their projects within their budgetary and logistical constraints.

Health-Oriented Marketing on Alcoholic Drinks: An Online Audit and Comparison of Nutrition Content of Australian Products.

Marketing, label design, and product innovation strategies are being used by the alcohol industry to position some products as "healthier choices." The aim of this study was to systematically document the content and prevalence of health-oriented marketing on alcohol products on the Australian market and to compare the online availability of nutrition information and the alcohol and nutrient content between products with and without such features. Health-oriented marketing features on all beer, cider, and ready-to-drink (RTD) premixed drinks, and selected wines on the website of the largest liquor retailer in Australia were audited using a systematic coding protocol. Nutrition information was sought from manufacturer/brand websites. A total of 54% of beers, ciders, and RTDs featured health-oriented marketing, the most common forms being natural imagery or descriptors, or references to fruit ingredients. Twenty-one percent of audited wines featured health-oriented marketing. The prevalence of specific features varied by product category. Online availability of nutrition information for alcohol products was poor (12% of beer, cider, and RTDs). Products with health-oriented marketing were lower in energy and alcohol content than those without but were still classed as full-strength alcohol on average. Health-oriented marketing is prevalent on alcohol products sold in Australia. In the absence of universal and standardized health warning and energy content information on labels, permitted health-oriented marketing has the potential to mislead consumers about product healthiness or to detract from the perceived harm associated with alcohol consumption. Research to test this proposition is now needed to guide labeling policy reform.

Meta-analysis of Federally Funded Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program Evaluations.

Beginning in 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sponsored numerous studies testing the effectiveness of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention programs on youths' risky sexual behaviors. This article presents results from a meta-analysis of such studies completed between 2015 and 2019 and provided to us by HHS. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they used an experimental/quasi-experimental design, included a comparison condition, assigned at least 10 study participants to each condition, and measured and reported at least one outcome related to sexual behavior or consequences. Data were extracted using a standardized coding protocol and outcomes were coded as, or transformed to, log odds ratio effect sizes for analysis and then transformed to odds ratio effect sizes for presentation in the text. All outcomes were coded such that log odds ratios greater than zero (odds ratios greater than 1) indicate beneficial effects (e.g., reductions in risky sexual behavior). A total of 52 studies met the inclusion criteria. Across 7 outcome types, pooled effects were generally small, the direction of effects was mixed, and none achieved statistical significance: recent pregnancy (OR = 1.30, 95% CI [1.00, 1.68]), ever had sex (OR = 1.07, 95% CI [0.99, 1.15]), recent sexual activity (OR = 0.95, 95% CI [0.84, 1.09]), recent unprotected sexual activity (OR = 1.05, 95% CI [0.96, 1.16]), ever pregnant (OR = 1.21, 95% CI [0.51, 2.89]), number of sexual partners (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = [0.28, 4.22]), and proportion of recent sexual experiences that were unprotected (OR = 0.74, 95% CI = [0.43, 1.31]). Moderator analyses pooling across all 7 outcome types indicated minor differences in program effectiveness between program settings, with those delivered in classroom settings being the least effective (b = - 0.17, 95% CI [- 0.33, - 0.01]). These findings do not lend meaningful support for the overall effectiveness of this group of pregnancy prevention programs. However, because the meta-analysis sample only included programs recently funded by HHS, these findings may have limited generalizability to programs funded by other entities or implemented in other countries.

Quantum cost of dense coding and teleportation

The quantum cost is a key ingredient to evaluate the quality of quantum protocols from a practical viewpoint. We show that the quantum cost of d-dimensional dense coding protocol is equal to d+3 when transmitting the classical message (0,0), and that is equal to d+4 when transmitting other classical message. It appears linear growth with the dimension and thus makes sense for implementation. In contrast, the quantum cost of high-dimensional teleportation protocols is equal to 13, which is the maximum value of the cost for the two-dimensional case. As an application, we establish the relation between the quantum cost and fidelity of dense coding protocols in terms of four typical noise scenario.

Entanglement in prepare-and-measure scenarios: many questions, a few answers

Entanglement and quantum communication are paradigmatic resources in quantum information science leading to correlations between systems that have no classical analogue. Correlations due to entanglement when communication is absent have for long been studied in Bell scenarios. Correlations due to quantum communication when entanglement is absent have been studied extensively in prepare-and-measure (PM) scenarios in the last decade. Here, we set out to understand and investigate correlations in scenarios that involve both entanglement and communication, focussing on entanglement-assisted (EA) PM scenarios. In a recent companion paper (arXiv:2103.10748), we investigated correlations based on unrestricted entanglement. Here, our focus is on scenarios with restricted entanglement. We establish several elementary relations between standard classical and quantum communication and their EA counterparts. In particular, while it was already known that bits or qubits assisted by two-qubit entanglement between the sender and receiver constitute a stronger resource than bare bits or qubits, we show that higher-dimensional entanglement further enhance the power of bits or qubits. We also provide a characterisation of generalised dense coding protocols, a natural subset of EA quantum communication protocols, finding that they can be understood as standard quantum communication protocols in real-valued Hilbert space. Though such dense coding protocols can convey up to two bits of information, we provide evidence, perhaps counter-intuitively, that resources with a small information capacity, such as a bare qutrits, can sometimes produce stronger correlations. Along the way we leave several conjectures and conclude with a list of interesting open problems.

Development of a live coding method to assess infant/toddler food acceptance.

Validated measures predicting infant consumption of nutrient supplements or fortified foods are essential for the success of nutritional interventions to improve undernutrition. Behavioural coding of food acceptance is one promising approach, though the required time and resources are limiting. The overarching goal of the present study was to adapt a video coding (VC) protocol for use as a live coding (LC) method to assess infant food acceptance in naturalistic settings. Infants (n = 59; ages 7–24 months) were fed a small‐quantity lipid‐based nutrient supplement (SQ‐LNS) mixed with a familiar food by caregivers in the State of Morelos, Mexico. Trained coders used a VC scheme to rate infant acceptance of each spoon offer using a 4‐point scale. The VC scheme was subsequently adapted for use as an LC method to be used in participant homes and a video live coding (VLC) method to monitor reliability. Reliability and validity of the LC method were tested in a subsample of dyads (n = 20). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) indicated that the inter‐rater reliability between coders using the LC method was moderate or good when compared to VC methods (ICCs = 0.75 and 0.87). Live coded acceptance scores were also moderately associated with consumption of the SQ‐LNS (ρ = 0.50, p = 0.03). The LC scheme demonstrated initial reliability and validity as an assessment of infant food acceptance. Since VC is both resource and time‐intensive, the LC scheme may be useful for assessing infant food acceptance in resource‐limited settings.

Development and Testing of the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework and Coding Protocol.

Curiosity is widely acknowledged as a crucial aspect of children’s development and as an important part of the learning process, with prior research showing associations between curiosity and achievement. Despite this evidence, there is little research on the development of curiosity or on promoting curiosity in school settings, and measures of curiosity promotion in the classroom are absent from the published literature. This article introduces the Curiosity in Classrooms (CiC) Framework coding protocol, a tool for observing and coding instructional practices that support the promotion of curiosity. We describe the development of the framework and observation instrument and the results of a feasibility study using the protocol, which gives a descriptive overview of curiosity-promoting instruction in 35 elementary-level math lessons. Our discussion includes lessons learned from this work and suggestions for future research using the developed observation tool.

Sum-rate maximization for UAV-enabled two-way relay systems

In this paper, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-enabled two-way relay system with Physical-layer Network Coding (PNC) protocol is considered. A rotary-wing UAV is applied as a mobile relay to assist two ground terminals for information interaction. Our goal is to maximize the sum-rate of the two-way relay system subject to mobility constraints, propulsion power consumption constraints, and transmit power constraints. The formulated problem is not easy to solve directly because it is a mixed integer non-convex optimization problem. Therefore, we decompose it into three sub-problems, and use the mutation arithmetic of the Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Successive Convex Approximation (SCA) to dispose. Besides, a high-efficiency iterative algorithm is proposed to obtain a locally optimal solution by jointly optimizing the time slot pairing, the transmit power allocation, and the UAV trajectory design. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed design achieves significant gains over the benchmark designs.

Joint Trajectory and Resource Optimization for UAV-Aided Two-Way Relay Networks

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided two-way relay networks with multiple terrestrial user pairs is investigated, where a fix-wing UAV is served as a two-way relay to assist information transmission. We aim to maximize the total rate of the two-way relay networks while the quality of service (QoS) being guaranteed. A novel relay strategy, namely <i>time-slots pairing</i>, is proposed by exploiting physical-layer network coding (PNC) protocol. Specifically, the UAV receives and buffers the signals from the scheduled user pair when the UAV approaches one of them, then forwards the modulated signal when the UAV is close to the other. As a result, a non-convex total rate maximization problem is formulated by joint trajectory design and resource optimization. To solve this problem, we first decompose it into three sub-problems, and then a three-step iterative algorithm that can effectively handle the non-convex problem with no worse than a polynomial complexity is developed leveraging the block coordinate descent (BCD) technique and successive convex approximation (SCA) method. Simulation results finally illustrate that: 1) Compared with amplify-and-forward (AF) or decode-and-forward (DF) protocols, the proposed design based on PNC protocol can significantly improve the total rate of the two-way relay networks; 2) the time-slots pairing relay strategy always achieves a significant enhancement on performance than the traditional non-time-slots pairing relay strategy; 3) the time-slots pairing relay strategy is more favorable for the mobile PNC relay networks since it can well resist the degradation of the entire networks caused by users&#x2019; increased service quality requirements.

Unpacking the behavioural components and delivery features of early childhood obesity prevention interventions in the TOPCHILD Collaboration: a systematic review and intervention coding protocol

IntroductionLittle is known about how early (eg, commencing antenatally or in the first 12 months after birth) obesity prevention interventions seek to change behaviour and which components are or are...

Analyzing Attacking methods on Wi-Fi wireless networks pertaining (WEP, WPA-WPA2) security protocols

The technology of wireless network systems has eased the possibility to communicate utilising the electromagnetic waves which leads to eliminating the major barriers in portable communications. Wireless networks have a vital role in the current era that all devices; ranging from local modems to organizational equipment, are using various coding approaches to exchange data on the network. However, since the wireless networks utilise the air, as the communication medium, that results to confront more vulnerabilities. If an attacker penetrates a wireless network, he/she would be capable to attack users connected to the network. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and WPA2 are the common security protocols that play the most significant role in local and organizational wireless communication. Accordingly, this study analysed the attacking methods in WEP, WPA, and WPA2 coding protocols. The main objective of the current study is to identify the security vulnerabilities related to these three protocols and define optimal solutions to improve the security of wireless networks against the attackers. The findings presented in this study would support users to maintain security of their home wireless networks as well as employees to secure the organizational network.

Correlations in Entanglement-Assisted Prepare-and-Measure Scenarios

We investigate the correlations that can arise between Alice and Bob in prepare-and-measure communication scenarios where the source (Alice) and the measurement device (Bob) can share prior entanglement. The paradigmatic example of such a scenario is the quantum dense coding protocol, where the communication capacity of a qudit can be doubled if a two-qudit entangled state is shared between Alice and Bob. We provide examples of correlations that actually require more general protocols based on higher-dimensional entangled states. This motivates us to investigate the set of correlations that can be obtained from communicating either a classical or a quantum $d$-dimensional system in the presence of an unlimited amount of entanglement. We show how such correlations can be characterized by a hierarchy of semidefinite programming relaxations by reducing the problem to a non-commutative polynomial optimization problem. We also introduce an alternative relaxation hierarchy based on the notion of informationally-restricted quantum correlations, which, though it represents a strict (non-converging) relaxation scheme, is less computationally demanding. As an application, we introduce device-independent tests of the dimension of classical and quantum systems that, in contrast to previous results, do not make the implicit assumption that Alice and Bob share no entanglement. We also establish several relations between communication with and without entanglement as resources for creating correlations.

Performance Analysis of Two-Way Satellite-Terrestrial Relay Network with SWIPT.

In this paper, we investigated the performance of a two-way satellite-terrestrial DF relay network with asymmetric simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT). In particular, selective physical-layer network coding (SPNC) was employed in the proposed network, improving the throughput performance. We derived the expressions of system average end-to-end throughput and single node detection (SND) occurrence probability. Furthermore, to observe the effects of the power splitting (PS) coefficient on the energy efficiency performance, the expressions of energy harvested in the physical-layer network coding (PNC) and SPNC protocol were also derived. Finally, theoretical analyses and Monte Carlo simulation results are presented to show: (i) SPNC protocol outperforms the conventional PNC protocol in the two-way satellite-terrestrial relay network with SWIPT in infrequent light shadowing (ILS), average shadowing (AS), and frequent heavy shadowing (FHS) Shadowed-Rician fading channels; (ii) as the channel state gets worse, SPNC protocol can achieve more performance improvement than PNC protocol; (iii) as the PS coefficient increases, the average end-to-end throughput performance increases progressively, and the average energy efficiency performance increases progressively within a certain range, while decreasing in the others.

Design and analysis of network adaptive coding protocol based on dynamic feedback

Traditional wireless network coding methods often fail to achieve ideal collection efficiency under single-point-to-multipoint multi-layer networks, and the Coupon Collector's Problem aggravates the collection delay. This paper divides the network hierarchy into the source node, relay node and sink node, and proves the collection delay effect in multi-layer network through Markov chain analysis. Then we propose to use a small amount of feedback information to reduce the collection delay and the number of invalid codewords, and derive a new degree distribution formula. We propose a dynamic feedback adaptive coding (DFAC) model and propose an adaptive coding protocol (DFACP) based on DFAC. It shows that the DFAC model is superior to the traditional LT Codes and Growth codes protocol in terms of collection efficiency and other indicators, and the scheme has strong adaptive robustness in dynamic node changes.

Design and analysis of network adaptive coding protocol based on dynamic feedback

Design and analysis of network adaptive coding protocol based on dynamic feedback

A Practical Quantum Network Coding Protocol Based on Non-Maximally Entangled State

In many earlier works, perfect quantum state transmission over the butterfly network can be achieved via quantum network coding protocols with the assist of maximally entangled states. However, in actual quantum networks, a maximally entangled state as auxiliary resource is hard to be obtained or easily turned into a non-maximally entangled state subject to all kinds of environmental noises. Therefore, we propose a more practical quantum network coding scheme with the assist of non-maximally entangled states. In this paper, a practical quantum network coding protocol over grail network is proposed, in which the non-maximally entangled resource is assisted and even the desired quantum state can be perfectly transmitted. The achievable rate region, security and practicability of the proposed protocol are discussed and analyzed. This practical quantum network coding protocol proposed over the grail network can be regarded as a useful attempt to help move the theory of quantum network coding towards practicability.

A Hybrid Scheme for Secure Wireless Communications in IoT

Network Coding is a potential technology for the future wireless communications and Internet of Things (IoT) as it reduces the number of transmissions and offers energy efficiency. It is vulnerable to threat and attack that can harm intermediate nodes. Indeed, it exhibits an ability to incorporate security of transmitted data, yet a lot of work needs to be done to provide a safeguard from threats. The purpose of this study is to strengthen the existing Network Coding scheme with a set of generic requirements for Network Coding Protocols by adopting system models and a Genetic Algorithm based cryptosystem. A hybrid approach is being adopted by combining a key-distribution scheme and a code encryption approach in an experimental setup which simulated it using MATLAB and KODO libraries. The proposed hybrid approach showed good results by strengthening security along with better key management while retaining the additional benefits. Further, simulations show good performance of this cryptosystem for Network Coding enabled communications. In terms of a generic frame, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first work which takes generic security requirements into consideration, combines key-distribution and Genetic Algorithm based encryption and takes a system approach. The proposed approach is named as a Genetic Crypto Outer Code Secure Network Coding (GCOCSNC).

Optimal Huffman Coding Performance of Ad-Hoc Networks Based on Cross-Layer Design.

Effective data compression and sustainable management of limited bandwidth are the fundamental challenges in the design of current ad-hoc wireless networks. Dynamic Huffman coding protocol with optimal prefix-free codewords assigned to network parameters through cross-layer methodology can considerably address these issues for performance enhancement in these networks. In this paper, the entropy based Huffman binary and ternary coding schemes are implemented with cross-layer design in mobile ad-hoc networks. This cross-layer approach for achieving higher adaptivity incorporated four layers of the traditional networking stack. The simulation results demonstrated the performance tradeoff between throughput and coding metrics for the proposed cross-layer architecture. Moreover, our proposed model exhibits substantially higher compression ratio and coding efficiency than the other existing methods through the integration of this lossless coding protocol in the developed cross-layer framework.

Developing a fidelity measure of early intervention programs for children with neuromotor disorders.

To describe the development of an intervention-specific fidelity measure and its utilization and to determine whether the newly developed Sitting Together and Reaching to Play (START-Play) intervention was implemented as intended. Also, to quantify differences between START-Play and usual early intervention (uEI) services. A fidelity measure for the START-Play intervention was developed for children with neuromotor disorders by: (1) identifying key intervention components, (2) establishing a measurement coding system, and (3) testing the reliability of instrument scores. After establishing acceptable interrater reliability, 103 intervention videos from the START-Play randomized controlled trial were coded and compared between the START-Play and uEI groups to measure five dimensions of START-Play fidelity, including adherence, dosage, quality of intervention, participant responsiveness, and program differentiation. Fifteen fidelity variables out of 17 had good to excellent interrater reliability evidence with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) ranging from 0.77 to 0.95. The START-Play therapists met the criteria for acceptable fidelity of the intervention (rates of START-Play key component use ≥0.8; quality ratings ≥3 [on a scale of 1-4]). The START-Play and uEI groups differed significantly in rates of START-Play key component use and quality ratings. The START-Play fidelity measure successfully quantified key components of the START-Play intervention, serving to differentiate START-Play from uEI.

Thermal quantum correlations of spin chain with multiple interactions

In order to explore the impact of distance between spins on quantum correlation, we compute trace ditance discord (TDD) and spin squeezing in an anisotropic Heisenberg XYZ model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in the presence of the external magnetic field. It is valuable to investigate that how we can protect quantum correlations in system when the distance between the spins is promoted. We find that rich Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and low temperature can be effective for quantum correlations with increasing distance between spins. As, at sufficeintly low temperature In addition, the generated correlated channels are inspected to interchange the information between the system qubits applying the standard dense coding protocol; then, the dense coding capacity of the transmitted information is quantified. It is found that the strength Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and magnetic field have a great impact on the dynamics of the quantum correlations and, consequently, the quality of the generated channels to exchange the information. Therefore, the effect of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction for various strengths of temperature needs to be considered to have valid dense coding when distance of spin increases.