Connectivity Issues Research Articles

Benthic biology in the Polish exploration contract area of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: The knowns and the unknowns. A review

In February 2018, the Government of Poland and the International Seabed Authority signed a 15-year contract for exploration of polymetallic sulfide deposits on a section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge extending between the Hayes, Atlantic and Kane transform faults (32°45.378’ N, 39°57.760’ W to 26°14.411’ N, 44°18.008’ W). The contractor is obliged to collect data on the contract area environment and its ecosystem components. In this context, it is important that the contractor establishes a sound starting point which further baseline investigations can be referred to. Such a starting point involves assessment of currently held information and, most importantly, knowledge gaps on the ecosystem components in the area of exploration (and of potential future exploitation). Of major importance here is the knowledge on benthic communities, as it is the benthos that will be most affected by any human intervention in the area of interest. Based on available published evidence, we have reviewed the present state of knowledge on benthic communities in the Polish exploration contract area (PECA). In the process, we have identified important knowledge gaps that will need to be addressed during exploration surveys. These include, but are not limited to, the distribution and structure of benthic communities throughout the contract area, the spatial and temporal variability of those communities, possible differences between communities inhabiting active and inactive vent fields, connectivity issues and the recovery potential. Special consideration should be given to Lost City, a geologically and ecologically unique hydrothermal field which has been a focus of international research and an important conservation target.

Virtual Fracture Clinic Model in India: A Technological Innovation.

Virtual Fracture Clinics (VFCs) are an alternative to the conventional model of fracture and minor injuries care. It is a new, evolving service designed to speed up patient access to orthopaedic care introduced in the United Kingdom in 2011 and has been increasingly used in the management of certain musculoskeletal injuries. This observational, pilot study evaluates the possibility of combining telemedicine technology and a virtual fracture clinical assessment pathway to remotely assess patients supported by radiology imaging in India. Piloting and developing a virtual fracture clinical assessment pathway model in India is faced with many challenges including regulations, internet, and data connectivity issues, and concerns of medico-legal implications. Recent studies have reported Virtual Fracture Clinics (VFCs) to be able to provide a safe, cost-effective model of patient care in a subset of musculoskeletal injuries. Limitations and shortcomings of Virtual Fracture Clinics (VFCs) in India can be mitigated with effective communication, enhanced documentation, appropriate training, and information governance. This pathway is not a replacement for conventional 'face-to-face' evaluation but a credible option to complement the delivery of trauma and orthopaedic care in the future in India.

Impact of Distance Learning on the English Language Learning Process

Interaction plays a critical role in processing data utilized for language learning. The outcome of a learning system depends on the learner's level of knowledge of a second foreign language (L2). The study uses a primary qualitative approach, working with data from primary sources in the form of open-ended questions. The use of primary research methods in this study was important because it allowed for a better understanding of the impact of distance education on English language learning (concerning Arab learners). This study used the main qualitative research methods and the case study method as a research tool because this method allows qualitative data to be collected, investigated, and calculated combined. In addition, the open-ended questions allowed participants to share their experiences of the impact of distance education on English language learning (applied to Arabic learners). The results of the qualitative research also revealed the challenges teachers face when innovating in online foreign language teaching, including, but not limited to, difficulties related to broadband access, accessibility, LMS connectivity issues, and appropriate assessment tools. The study results also showed that teachers would like more in-service training and preparation courses on the effective use of innovations and the application of unique applications in online teaching.

A Systematic Review of the Medical Student Feedback on Undergraduate Surgical Education During the Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has challenged and changed significant aspects of day-to-day life. With regard to medical education, the challenges have been substantial, and the changes have been innovative. This systematic review focuses specifically on medical student feedback on undergraduate surgical education during the pandemic. It explores the various types of technology used to facilitate online learning and aims to comprehensively review the advantages and disadvantages. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were adhered to, and electronic databases PubMed, Medline, and Scopus were used to identify relevant studies. The search yielded 102 papers once duplicates and non-English articles were removed. Of these, 19 articles were included in the review. These publications were appraised, which was the source of the narrative syntheses of this systematic review, and due to the heterogeneous data, a meta-analysis could not be successfully implemented. The integration of real-time image capture devices used to display stakeholders or objects such as models of wounds has resulted in the improvement of virtual learning to an almost in-person experience. Adding to this, the use of communication and participation platforms facilitates active discussion when used appropriately. However, there are still some barriers that may be removed with time as the technology continually improves, and these are not exclusive to connectivity issues and restriction of the senses to only two-dimensional sight and hearing. Despite this, the student feedback was largely positive, and the integration of more innovative methods of delivering teaching will have a positive impact on education as long as it is used as an adjunct and not as a replacement for face-to-face teaching.

Monitoreo pesquero participativo en la Amazonía peruana en el marco de una iniciativa de ciencia ciudadana: motivaciones e intereses de usuarios de ICTIO

We present the motivations, interests and strategies used by rural fishery monitors from two Peruvian Amazon basins involved in a citizen science experience using a mobile applicative and a global migratory fish registry platform for the Amazon called ICTIO. Each finding presented here arises from the observations of three years of implementation, the exchange of experiences with other Amazonian users and the active participation of users from both watersheds. The use of this app has proven to be a challenge for rural populations involved in this initiative, mainly due to connectivity issues and the technological gap between rural monitors and urban users. However, this app provides a tool with great potential to complement, reinforce and expand their traditional monitoring systems and for scaling out to rural and urban populations in other regions of the Amazon.

Robotics and artificial intelligence in healthcare during COVID-19 pandemic

This paper will present the use of robotics and artificial intelligence in healthcare during COVID-19 pandemic. The types of robots to be discussed are autonomous mobile platforms that can assist with a broad range of tasks, including remote monitoring, on-site rescue and logistics. A case study is presented to illustrate how an artificial intelligence network application enabled healthcare providers to plan for the staffing levels of specific care areas while taking into account other constraints such as security and connectivity issues during a pandemic event. Robotics have become ubiquitous in human society in recent years due to their ability to perform repetitive tasks with minimal supervision, thus freeing up humans for more important activities or providing them relief from monotonous work that is physically demanding or exhausting.

Perspectives of Teachers about Online Classes and Their Psychosocial Well-Being During School Reopening Phase: A Cross-sectional Study from North India

Background: During COVID-19 pandemic, education of children was continued in online mode for an extended period of time. Research from India in the beginning of pandemic indicated that teachers faced numerous challenges while adapting to this new mode of teaching. However, no prior study from India evaluated perspective of teachers regarding online classes and their psychosocial well-being during school reopening phase, which started in Feb 2022. During this period both online and offline classes were being conducted and thus presented the opportunity for better comparison of effects of both systems. Schools still revert to online mode of teaching periodically, but it remains to be seen if it benefits the teachers and students. Methods: It was a cross-sectional online survey-based study. Self-designed questionnaires assessing perspectives of teachers regarding online classes and psychosocial impact were administered. Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 was used to measure psychological distress. Results: N = 708 school teachers participated in this survey. A total of 96% of them preferred offline mode of teaching. Several disadvantages of online classes were listed such as connectivity issues, poor interaction with students, poor concentration, and knowledge transfer. Due to online classes, most of them reported increase in working hours, and decrease in leisure time and quality of life. The teachers who conducted online classes (either alone or combined with offline classes), who were employed in private schools and those with lesser family income, had significantly higher psychological distress. Conclusion: According to school teachers, online classes carried many disadvantages. Online classes also decreased the psychosocial well-being of teachers.

Challenges of an Online Training Programme: An Experience Report from Agro-based Entrepreneurs in a Sub-Urban Area

It is well known that the education landscape changed immensely since the pandemic COVID-19 outbreak. Though the shift of traditional method to online method has been widely researched in schools and universities, the utilization of knowledge transfer using ICT as mediums among micro, small, and medium companies (MSMEs) training still lacked attention. This paper reports on the experiences from a group of agro-based entrepreneurs in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia who participated in an online training programme. Using qualitative methods, the findings revealed that the participants agreed that the online training is interesting despite the challenges they faced. Among the challenges found are issues involving basic infrastructure like limited internet connectivity and personal issues like distractions due to multiple roles at home. The findings of the study have given insights on factors that require thoughtful attention when opting to use online training in the future.

Online Teaching

Context: The research gap is found when it comes to studying the perception of the medical undergraduate students toward e-learning during COVID-19 pandemic in India when e-learning has emerged as the only available option to continue learning in medical education. Aims: This study aims to identify the perception of the medical undergraduate students toward e-learning during COVID-19 pandemic. Settings and Design: Descriptive questionnaire-based study was conducted at Yenepoya Medical College, Mangalore. Materials and Methods: A prevalidated questionnaire form on online teaching was circulated to medical students of our institution. A total of 135 students' responses were analyzed. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive statistical method was applied and results are expressed in frequency and percentages. Results: Out of 135 responses, 37.8% were from phase I, 28.9% from Phase II, and 33.3% from phase III students. 57.8% of students expressed they would like to learn with online classes, whereas, 20.7% of students mentioned that teaching activities should be suspended till the pandemic settles down, 12.6% suggested self-directed learning, and the remaining 8.9% are happy with assignments and study materials. Regarding the format of online classes, 52.6% preferred live classes with PowerPoint presentations to prerecorded classes. With respect to duration, 77% insisted each class should be between 30 and 45 min. 71.9% said a maximum of 2–4 h they could concentrate on online teaching activity in a day. 88.9% expressed connectivity issues as a challenge, 60.7% were not able to grasp the subject, and 22.2% expressed that their doubts are not answered. In general, 81.5% feel that conventional offline classes are better and only 7.4% of students are happy with online classes. Regarding the benefits of online classes, 80.7% expressed that online classes are safe and can attend online class from any place. 69.6% mentioned that group activity is the major concern followed by lack of discussion with the teacher. Conclusions: With advanced technology online teaching though was a boon during pandemics for many but other concerns should be addressed for successful and effective teaching activities.

Assessing Pharmacy Student Performance and Perceptions on Counseling Skills Through a Simulated Telehealth Encounter

Objective. To describe the implementation of a teleconferencing-based patient counseling role play assessment in a newly developed pharmacy communications course, assess student performance on the role play and compare it with other assessments, and measure student perceptions of and satisfaction with the experience.Methods. Eighteen cases were developed, each belonging to one of three interactions in community pharmacy: filling a new prescription, completing a refill, or handling a request for a nonprescription (ie, over-the-counter [OTC]) medication. A rubric was designed to evaluate each type of interaction. Student scores in various course assessments were tested and scores on the three cases were compared. Students also evaluated their experience and satisfaction of the assessment and effectiveness of the course.Results. Seventy-nine students completed the assessment, achieving a mean score of 17.4/20 (87%). Student scores in the counseling role play were similar among case types and positively correlated with other traditional assessments in the course. Despite internet connectivity issues and heightened student anxiety, 71% of students agreed that the assessment did not affect the quality of their counseling, and 74% agreed that the experience was comparable to traditional assessments. The telehealth activity led to enhanced perceived student knowledge and confidence in interviewing and counseling patients.Conclusion. Students attained high scores that were consistent with other assessments in the course. Students reported that the assessment did not affect the quality of their counseling and felt the setting and context were still authentic. The experience required dedicated preparation and organization but was successful in demonstrating overall student satisfaction and positive perceptions.

IP Expiration and Host Name Mismatch: A Common Client Server Connectivity Issue

Most whitelists refer to IP addresses, not host names, so when an IP address expires, a client-server may be unable to establish a secure connection with the host server because the new IP address is not on the whitelist. The problem is different for dynamic and static IP addresses because of the inherent change frequency, thus warranting different solutions. For dynamic IP, more flexible whitelists or automated whitelist modifications may be more feasible. For static IPs, manually modifying the script that allows whitelisted servers to pass through the firewall may make more sense, especially if security is a major concern.

An Exploratory Study on the Challenges Faced by Parents during Online Teaching to Students with Intellectual Disabilities

The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges faced by parents during online teaching to students with intellectual disabilities on account of COVID-19 Pandemic. The objectives of the study included the exploration of behavioral, educational, technical, financial, and health-related problems faced by parents during online teaching. The phenomenological research methodology was used to explore the problem in depth with the help of parents through their lived experiences. The sample of 10 parents and 10 teachers was recruited using a purposive sampling technique. Data were analyzed by using thematic analysis after coding, generating themes for the interpretation of codes. The study revealed that the challenges during online teaching were lack of on-seat behavior of the child, No Eye Contact, distraction to other objects, and hyperactive and aggressive behavior. Teachers reported the problems they faced included difficulty in command following, frequent connectivity Issues, and the child remaining uncomfortable with the device. Major challenges parents face was the short attention span of children, difficulty concentrating on the screen activity, and clash in work-home routines. Future research studies must be conducted in the schools where the administrators are utilizing the online mode as a regular feature now.

Scheduled File Transfer Job Failures: Reasons and Remediation Measures from an MFT Perspective

Scheduled pull jobs/file transfers are a critical and widely used automation element of Managed File Transfer (MFT) systems. These pull jobs may fail for a number of reasons, including wrong file path, missing the file availability window, misconfigured pull request, authentication issues, and network connectivity issues (temporary). These issues can be remediated by establishing proper communication channels between clients and hosts and updating the clients with necessary information like file paths, dependencies, etc.

Online mentoring: challenges and strategies.

To gain insights into the e-mentoring experience, needs of the stakeholders (mentors and mentees) challenges and strategies to overcome the challenges. Qualitative exploratory study was conducted in Islamic International Medical College, from February 2021 to July 2021. The study duration was six months. Six 'Semi-structured interviews' of mentors and two 'focus group discussions' with mentees were conducted. A purposeful sampling technique was employed to select the respondents. Data were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. After that analysis of data was done by inductive content analysis. Data were coded line by line. Open codes were combined to form categories, which were combined to form themes through abstraction. Data was analyzed by using Atlas.ti. After analyzing data from mentors and mentees, 21 open codes sorted into 15 categories and abstracted to from five major themes. Participants talked about the problems of online sessions like; connectivity issues, impaired interaction, nonspecific goals, unaware of MS Teams use. They suggested strategies to make these sessions more practical; like workshops for training, face to face sessions before online mode, blended approach, careful selection of mentors and mentees. All were satisfied with security and witnessed anonymity and privacy. Online mentoring can help students feel less lonely through social contact. E-mentoring provides flexibility to those who would usually deal with discrimination to being mentored because of their gender, ethnicity, disability or geographical location.

The Use of Computational Geometry Techniques to Resolve the Issues of Coverage and Connectivity in Wireless Sensor Networks.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) enhance the ability to sense and control the physical environment in various applications. The functionality of WSNs depends on various aspects like the localization of nodes, the strategies of node deployment, and a lifetime of nodes and routing techniques, etc. Coverage is an essential part of WSNs wherein the targeted area is covered by at least one node. Computational Geometry (CG) -based techniques significantly improve the coverage and connectivity of WSNs. This paper is a step towards employing some of the popular techniques in WSNs in a productive manner. Furthermore, this paper attempts to survey the existing research conducted using Computational Geometry-based methods in WSNs. In order to address coverage and connectivity issues in WSNs, the use of the Voronoi Diagram, Delaunay Triangulation, Voronoi Tessellation, and the Convex Hull have played a prominent role. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing various research challenges and proposed solutions using Computational Geometry-based techniques.

To find the impact on learning among phase 1 MBBS students during COVID-19 pandemic

The closure of educational activities around the world due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unplanned shift from traditional learning to a setup that exclusively involves digital teaching and learning. Within this context, the present study aimed to explore undergraduate medical students’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness of synchronized online learning at DM WIMS, Wayanad, Kerala. : A cross sectional study was done in DM WIMS, Wayanad, Kerala and included 120 first MBBS students. First a five point Likert scale questionnaire specific to their level of training was sent online via Google form. Next, 3 focus group were conducted on 3 different days. Number of students in each group were 8. Duration of each focus group discussion was 1 hr. Focus group discussion was done in the department of Biochemistry. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed for thematic contents. : Various challenges to learning as agreed upon by majority of students included not familiar with Google meet (80%), could not concentrate for long during sessions (75.8%), less interaction, not able to clarify doubts, network and connectivity issues (70%) and not adequate feedback given during the sessions (59.1%). Various benefits to learning during COVID -19 pandemic as agreed by students included: online ppt shared via Whatsapp were useful (86.6%), better time management (65.9%), and use of videos and pictures during sessions enhanced understanding the concept better (41.5%). A thematic analysis yielded three core themes: (1) Overall learning experience, (2) Quality of teaching and learning, (3) Difficulties encountered. Majority of participants said it was good learning experience and new for them. They said they were reluctant and anxious about going online initially but eventually they picked up and were satisfied with most of the sessions. Majority of students were satisfied with the teaching and agreed that the lectures were well taken.: It is true to say that all facets of health education and clinical training is harshly affected by the pandemic. Despite all these barriers and challenges, it has been demonstrated that online learning holds certain advantages over traditional learning.

Dual-Channel Interactive Graph Convolutional Networks for Aspect-Level Sentiment Analysis

Aspect-level sentiment analysis aims to identify the sentiment polarity of one or more aspect terms in a sentence. At present, many researchers have applied dependency trees and graph neural networks (GNNs) to aspect-level sentiment analysis and achieved promising results. However, when a sentence contains multiple aspects, most methods model each aspect independently, ignoring the issue of sentiment connection between aspects. To address this problem, this paper proposes a dual-channel interactive graph convolutional network (DC-GCN) model for aspect-level sentiment analysis. The model considers both syntactic structure information and multi-aspect sentiment dependencies in sentences and employs graph convolutional networks (GCN) to learn its node information representation. Particularly, to better capture the representations of aspect and opinion words, we exploit the attention mechanism to interactively learn the syntactic information features and multi-aspect sentiment dependency features produced by the GCN. In addition, we construct the word embedding layer by the BERT pre-training model to better learn the contextual semantic information of sentences. The experimental results on the restaurant, laptop, and twitter datasets show that, compared with the state-of-the-art model, the accuracy is up to 1.86%, 2.50, 1.36%, and 0.38 and the Macro-F1 values are up to 1.93%, 0.61%, and 0.4%, respectively.

Self-healing and optimal fault tolerant routing in wireless sensor networks using genetical swarm optimization

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is used in area monitoring, surveillance, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, etc. The interaction between sensor nodes (SNs) and base station (BS) play a major role in WSN. SNs use more energy to transmit data, and the occurrence of faults in these nodes may lead to complete network failure. To ensure enhanced network performance, the incorporation of an efficient fault detection mechanism becomes essential in WSN. The major aim of the work is to improve the self-healing capacity of the network. To meet the above requirement, a fault-tolerant routing path identification with genetical swarm optimization (FTGSO) is introduced in this work. Genetical swarm optimization (GSO) is the integration of the two optimizations like Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle swarm optimization (PSO). The cluster head (CH) selection carried out on the basis of residual energy, coverage, communication cost and proximity. Further, a fault-free routing path is introduced by GSO, and a self-healing method is employed to resolve any network connectivity issues and resume the normal system operation. The analysis and simulation outcomes are compared with other optimization algorithms to verify the effectiveness. The evaluation results verify the enhanced performance of the introduced scheme with a higher PDR (packet delivery ratio) of 96.8%, lower energy consumption of 0.19 J with a minimum packet loss ratio of 3.2% and 30 ms of E2E (end-to-end delay) compared to other existing routing protocols. Also, the performance of the proposed method is compared on the basis of E2E, energy efficiency, (PLR) packet loss ratio and PDR.

An Enhanced Information Sharing Roadside Unit Allocation Scheme for Vehicular Networks

Sharing up-to-date environment information collected by intelligent connected vehicles is critical in achieving travel comfort, convenience, and safety in vehicular networks. Individually collected information should be made available to other vehicular nodes, adjacent or distant, to achieve an informed and well-managed vehicular traffic. The coverage reach of sharing these road data can be maximized by allocating roadside units in strategic positions. In this work, we propose an Enhanced Information SHAring via Roadside Unit Allocation (EISHA–RSU) scheme that strategically determines where RSUs must be deployed from all spatial candidate locations. The urban area is irregularly partitioned into effective regions of movement (ERM) according to vehicular capacity with priority. For each ERM, EISHA–RSU greedily allocates the initial RSU to an effective position and optimally assigns the remaining RSUs to spatial locations that capture the maximum I2V/V2I information sharing based on the area’s average road speed. In effect, the proposed deployment scheme addresses both the issues of coverage and connectivity among vehicles and the infrastructure. We evaluate the proposed RSU allocation scheme by employing three urban empirical mobility datasets and compare its network starvation fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency performance measures with three other deployment benchmarks. Overall, EISHA–RSU reduces the number of required RSUs to cover a certain area, exhibits higher connectivity, and achieves maximum I2V/V2I information sharing among the evaluated schemes.

Hybrid assessment as a formative assessment tool for undergraduates in pathology

Background: The online portal has been a vital tool for both teaching as well as assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. While being the only safe option available during this period, online assessment has its own drawbacks. Students have access to their books as well as the internet; therefore, there is no regulation over plagiarism, compromising the reliability of the examination. On the other hand, traditional offline assessment, apart from issues of safety during the pandemic, also requires a substantial infrastructure. Aims: The study was conducted to explore the possibility of using a hybrid assessment method-an online examination in an offline setting-with the aim of compensating the shortcomings of both type of assessments and evaluating its potential as a formative assessment tool. Settings and Design: The study was conducted over a period of 1 month in the Department of Pathology of a Medical College of New Delhi. A batch of 100 students belonging to the second professional MBBS were evaluated toward the end of their fifth semester. Materials and Methods: A blueprint of the online practical examination was prepared by the faculty, including the entire syllabus. The assessments were conducted 4 times for a batch of 25 students at a time. Students were called on the day of their assessment with their mobile phones, and the test was sent through Google forms. At the end of the examination, a quick evaluation of the result was done question wise and the faculty gave detailed feedback discussing the results. Following this, the students were asked to fill out an online feedback form to gather their perceptions regarding hybrid assessment. Results: Most of the students considered hybrid practical assessment to be a better mode than conventional practical assessment, and the majority thought that this mode can be useful for final exam preparation and should be conducted more frequently. Most of the students were satisfied with the time given for answering the questions as well as with the difficulty level of the questions, and felt that the syllabus was appropriately covered. However, a few students faced problems such as Internet connectivity and form reloading issues. Conclusions: A hybrid assessment method that is conducting an “on campus” online examination can be effective mode of conducting regular formative assessments. It has the advantage of requiring minimal infrastructure as well as examination faculty.