Future Access Research Articles

The effect of the exit of an insurer, due to government liquidation, on access to health care: evidence from Colombia.

Our study evaluates the liquidation effect of a health insurer from a subsidized scheme, with the largest number of members in Colombia, on restrictions to future access to user care. Based on the information regarding complaints and judicial claims about healthcare, the effect of this government decision is estimated using a dynamic econometric model of differences in differences. Our results suggest that the liquidation of the Health-Promoting Entity (EPS, its acronym in Spanish) CAPRECOM has a negative effect, specifically, it led to an increase of 0.32 and 0.21 in complaints rates per 1,000 members in the receiving EPSs during the first and second quarters after the intervention, respectively. However, this effect does not persist over time and becomes diluted in the following quarters. There is no evidence of a relationship between the magnitude of the effect and the EPSs performance ranking. Additionally, we do not find significant effects on judicial claims. Our results are important concerning the design and implementation of public policies for EPSs liquidation. We demonstrate the necessity of implementing actions to incorporate guidelines and strategic plans during the transition period. Such actions would enable safeguarding the right to health for the affected population in a liquidation insurer case.

Millimeter wave negative refractive index metamaterial antenna array

In this paper, a novel negative refractive index metamaterial (NIM) is developed and characterized. The proposed metamaterial exhibits negative effective permittivity (εeffe) and negative effective permeability (µeffe) at millimeter wave frequency of 28 GHz. This attractive feature is utilized to enhance the gain of a microstrip patch antenna (MPA). Two thin layers of 5 × 5 subwavelength unit cell array of NIM are placed above a single MPA to enhance the gain of the antenna. Each unit cell has an area of 3.4 × 3.4 mm2. A gain increase of 7.9 dBi has been observed when using the proposed NIM as a superstrate. Furthermore, the NIM array is placed over a 2 × 2 array of MPAs with four ports to demonstrate versatility of the metamaterial. The total size of the 2 × 2 antenna array system with N-MTM is about 61.1 × 34 × 16mm3 (5.71λ × 3.18λ × 1.5λ, where λ is the free-space wavelength at 28 GHz). The measurement result indicate that the maximum gain of the antenna array is 13.5dBi. A gain enhancement of 7.55 dB in E-Plane and 7.25 dB in H-Plane at the resonant frequency of 28 GHz is obtained. The proposed antenna structure is suitable for 5G millimeter wave communications, in particular, for possible implementation in future millimeter wave access points and cellular base stations.

Efficient Heuristic Management of Cloud Data Lakes for Enhanced Big Data Handling in Cloud Computing Environments

Efficient control of cloud data lakes is important for improving big data dealing in cloud computing settings. Cloud data lakes serve as stores for vast amounts of organized, semi-structured, and unstructured data from varied sources, offering scaling and freedom in data storage and processing. However, the sheer amount and range of data offer difficulties in improving storage, access, and analysis processes. This study suggests a heuristic method to handle these issues by improving the order and recovery of data within cloud data lakes. The heuristic method focuses on automatically handling data splitting, storage, and caching strategies based on data access trends and task factors. By leveraging heuristic principles, such as adaptable splitting and predictive caching, the suggested method aims to reduce delay and improve total query speed. Key components of the heuristic management include adaptable splitting methods that actively change data partition sizes based on access frequency and data distribution patterns. This flexible method ensures that frequently accessed data is easily available, while less accessed data is efficiently saved to improve storage usage. Furthermore, predictive storing methods expect future data access patterns using machine learning models or previous data trends. By strategically saving relevant datasets in memory or high-speed storage, the system reduces delay for repeated questions, thereby improving real-time data processing capabilities. The success of the suggested heuristic management method is tested through models and benchmarks using real big data tasks. Comparative research against standard static splitting and caching methods shows significant changes in query response times and resource utilization efficiency.

Provision of palliative care for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a narrative review.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by persistent and progressive airflow restriction and is the third leading cause of death and disability, globally. People with severe COPD generally experience long-term functional decline punctuated by periods of acute exacerbation. Symptom burden can be severe and debilitating, and typically includes breathlessness, cough, fatigue, pain, anxiety, depression, and overall reduced quality of life. Understanding current palliative care needs and provisions in this group is an essential step to expanding access in future. A narrative review of specialist and generalist (primary) palliative care provisions for people with COPD, with an emphasis on breathlessness symptom management. This paper aims to examine the current landscape of palliative care provision and highlight barriers and facilitators to palliative care access for people with severe COPD. People living with severe COPD, as well as the people who care for them, are routinely under-serviced in best-practice end-of-life care, despite having symptom burden that is comparable to that of people with advanced cancer. Barriers to palliative care in this group include lack of specialist palliative care resources, uncertainty surrounding prognostication, and poor recognition of need from both patients and clinicians. Routine early palliative care involvement, including integration of specialist palliative care into respiratory services and upskilling of other healthcare providers to adopt palliative care principals within usual care (primary palliative care), have been shown to improve outcomes indicative of high-quality end-of-life care in this group, including symptom control, place of death, and legal preparations. Ongoing integration of specialist palliative care and professional education for generalist and non-palliative care specialist healthcare providers in the recognition and management of unmet palliative care needs is required to increase capacity beyond traditional specialist palliative care models. Despite high level of symptom burden, many people with COPD miss out on palliative care. Expanding capacity of traditional specialist palliative care by upskilling generalist healthcare providers and integrating specialist palliative care into existing respiratory services is necessary to improve access for people with COPD.

Caching or not: An online cost optimization algorithm for geodistributed data analysis in cloud environments

With the wide application of big data technology, a large number of data geographically stored in data centers across various regions are generated everyday, waiting to be analyzed by big data tasks. Examples of such data analysis tasks include weather prediction and intelligent healthcare applications. Clouds are being used by more and more enterprises due to their nearly infinite resources, ease of scaling, and other characteristics. Organizations often rent StaaS (Storage-as-a-Service) storage products offered by cloud providers, such as OSS (Object Storage Service), for massive data storage, while building a big data cluster in cloud environments to analyze the collected data from various regions. However, when the data to be analyzed are not located in the rented cluster, how to efficiently and economically process the distributed input data stored in clouds becomes an urgent problem to be solved. A simple approach is to only cache frequently accessed data rather than all data from other regions into the cluster to reduce total traffic costs. However, it is generally very hard to predict future data access curves. Thus, a rash caching decision may incur more costs. To address this problem, in this paper we propose an online algorithm for guiding cloud users to make cost-effective caching decisions properly, while not requiring any future information. We prove theoretically that the competitive ratio of our online algorithm is less than 2. Finally we verify the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm through extensive experiments based on the real price of Alibaba’s public IaaS cloud products using both real-world Yahoo S2 data and synthesized datasets.

Ion heating characteristics of merging spherical tokamak plasmas for burning high-beta plasma formation

High-power ion heating of merging spherical tokamak (ST) plasma has been investigated using TS-3U, TS-4, and UTST at the University of Tokyo for future direct access to burning high-beta ST plasma without using any additional heating. We developed a two-fluid/kinetic interpretation of the promising scaling of ion heating energy that increases with the square of reconnecting magnetic field B rec ∼ poloidal magnetic field B p. We find that reconnection heating creates interesting high-beta ST plasmas with hollow currents and broad/hollow T i profiles. These high-beta ST plasmas often have reversed-shear or absolute minimum-B profiles, depending on their reconnection heating power and q-values.

Examining the distance-decay effect on obsidian lithic technological organization and its implications for raw material transportation: A case study from the Upper Paleolithic of Northeast Asia

This study conducts a comprehensive quantitative comparative analysis of the Upper Paleolithic obsidian industry in Northeast China and South Korea, examining the human adaptation, exploitation, and distribution of obsidian, juxtaposed with migration and interaction dynamics across the Mount Paektu (Paektusan) and Korean Peninsula. Integrating distance-decay theory with the hunter-gatherer social network model, and informed by new archaeological findings, our research addresses three vital domains: the supply zone of Paektusan obsidian, dispersal patterns, and lithic technological strategies correlated to obsidian availability.An obsidian raw material supply zone hypothesized to extend 100 km from Paektusan is established based on artifact frequency and size variations. Through a novel statistical approach, coupled with extensive database analysis of artifacts from three recent Northeast China excavations and existing Sino-Korean literature, our findings indicate a higher exploitation intensity of limited obsidian resources in South Korea, manifesting in specialized microlith use. The comparative analysis across five distance groups and Least Cost Path (LCP) models suggests the possibility of more geographically restricted southward material transport to South Korea. This research advances our understanding of the regional prehistoric exchange networks and offers fresh insights into the technological organization within the Upper Paleolithic obsidian industries of Northeast Asia. It underscores potential variations in raw material conveyance loss and foreshadows the investigative opportunities that may emerge from future data accessibility in North Korea.

Two-Photon Polymerization 3D-Printing of Micro-scale Neuronal Cell Culture Devices.

Neuronal cultures have been a reference experimental model for several decades. However, 3D cell arrangement, spatial constraints on neurite outgrowth, and realistic synaptic connectivity are missing. The latter limits the study of structure and function in the context of compartmentalization and diminishes the significance of cultures in neuroscience. Approximating ex vivo the structured anatomical arrangement of synaptic connectivity is not trivial, despite being key for the emergence of rhythms, synaptic plasticity, and ultimately, brain pathophysiology. Here, two-photon polymerization (2PP) is employed as a 3D printing technique, enabling the rapid fabrication of polymeric cell culture devices using polydimethyl-siloxane (PDMS) at the micrometer scale. Compared to conventional replica molding techniques based on microphotolitography, 2PP micro-scale printing enables rapid and affordable turnaround of prototypes. This protocol illustrates the design and fabrication of PDMS-based microfluidic devices aimed at culturing modular neuronal networks. As a proof-of-principle, a two-chamber device is presented to physically constrain connectivity. Specifically, an asymmetric axonal outgrowth during ex vivo development is favored and allowed to be directed from one chamber to the other. In order to probe the functional consequences of unidirectional synaptic interactions, commercial microelectrode arrays are chosen to monitor the bioelectrical activity of interconnected neuronal modules. Here, methods to 1) fabricate molds with micrometer precision and 2) perform in vitro multisite extracellular recordings in rat cortical neuronal cultures are illustrated. By decreasing costs and future widespread accessibility of 2PP 3D-printing, this method will become more and more relevant across research labs worldwide. Especially in neurotechnology and high-throughput neural data recording, the ease and rapidity of prototyping simplified in vitro models will improve experimental control and theoretical understanding of in vivo large-scale neural systems.

A Modified Switching Procedure from Temporary to Tunneled Central Venous Dialysis Catheters.

Background: Tunneled central venous catheters are commonly used for dialysis in patients without a functional permanent vascular access. In an emergent setting, a non-tunneled, temporary central venous catheter is often placed for immediate dialysis. The most critical step in the catheter insertion is venipuncture, which is often a major cause for longer intervention times and procedure-related adverse events. To avoid this critical step when placing a more permanent tunneled catheter, an exchange over a previously placed temporary one can be considered. In this paper, we present a modified switching approach with a separate access site. Methods: In this retrospective analysis of a prospective database, we examined whether this modified technique is non-inferior to a de novo application. Therefore, we included all 396 patients who received their first tunneled dialysis catheter at our site from March 2018 to March 2023. Out of these, 143 patients received the modified approach and 253 the standard de novo ultrasound-guided puncture and insertion. Then, the outcomes of the two groups, including adverse events and infections, were compared by nonparametric tests and multivariable logistic regression. Results: In both groups, the implantations were 100% successful. Catheter explantation due to infection according to CDC criteria was necessary in 18 cases, with no difference between the groups (5.0% vs. 4.4% p = 0.80). The infection rate per 100 days was 0.113 vs. 0.106 in the control group, with a comparable spectrum of bacteria. A total of 12 catheters (3 vs. 9) had to be removed due to a periinterventional complication. An early-onset infection was the reason in two cases (1.3%) in the study group and five in the control group (1.9%). A total misplacement of the catheter occurred in two cases only in the control group. After adjustment for potential confounders via multivariable logistic regression there was not a significant difference in the complication rate (adjusted odds ratio, aOR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.14-2.03, p = 0.351) but an estimated decreased risk overall based on the average treatment effect of -1.7% in favor of the study group. Conclusions: The present study shows that a catheter exchange leads to no more infections than a de novo placement; hence, it is a feasible method. Moreover, misplacements and control chest X-rays to exclude pneumothorax after venipuncture were completely avoided by exchanging. This approach yields a much lower infection rate than previous reports: 1.3% compared to 2.7% in all existing aggregated studies. The presented approach seems to be superior to existing switching methods. Overall, an exchange can also help to preserve veins for future access, since the same jugular vein is used.

Benefits of flexibility in current and future IM-DD based TDM-PON [Invited

Due to continuously emerging high bandwidth applications, research and standardization of time division multiplexed passive optical networks (TDM-PONs) have focused on increasing the peak bitrate. However, increasing the bitrate while supporting the stringent optical power budget of a PON becomes increasingly challenging because of the larger chromatic dispersion penalties as well as reduced receiver sensitivity when the bitrate of the intensity modulation with direct-detection (IM-DD) based PON is increased. Also, increasing bitrate generally causes higher power consumption, which leads to more challenging thermal designs and misalignment with environmental targets. In this paper we give an overview of flexible concepts that can help achieve the required optical power budget and support reduced power consumption of a future IM-DD based TDM-PON. We demonstrate that a flexible PON can provide an increased overall throughput or an extended reach and power budget with the use of flexible modulation formats, probabilistic and geometric shaping, and flexible rate forward error correction (FEC). Another dimension of flexibility in the form of a configurable optical distribution network (ODN) is described and its merits and challenges are discussed. Flexible concepts based on interleaving of FEC codewords can align signal processing like FEC decoding and the protocol processing closer to the user-rate of an optical network unit (ONU), which leads to reduced power consumption. Flexibility based on multiple channels based on wavelength multiplexing or spatial multiplexing enables optimization of the power consumption to the amount of traffic on the PON. Several flexible concepts have already been adopted in the PON standards. We highlight flexible gain FEC for upstream 50G PON, the transmitter dispersion eye closure (TDEC) metric, and the flexible split-ratio ODN for power saving. Flexible modulation has not been adopted yet in PON standards, but it is expected that flexibility is more and more needed to support the performance, cost effectiveness, and power conservation of future optical access systems.

Future proofing a long-term agricultural experiment for decades to come: Relocation and redesign

We took land encroachment for urban development that threatened a 60-year-old field experiment as an opportunity to transport and redesign an entire experiment to more effectively address contemporary challenges. The field experiment comprised long-term pH plots, established for agronomic demonstration in 1961, but used over the years for both applied and fundamental research. We redesigned the experimental layout to add strength to the statistical design through randomisation. Continuation and enrichment of the long-term pH experimental platform lends a unique resource for microbiome research per se. Here we have provided a rationale for why the decision was made to move the soils from the former Woodlands Field pH experiment. Moving soil on the scale of a field experiment requires costs and benefits to be weighed up in that the realisation of the transfer costs and the costs for the ongoing maintenance can outweigh the costs of a new experimental set up or indeed closing the experiment and walking away. It is important to recognise that much of the value is in assets that are not monetary. Considerations include the availability of a site suitable from a biophysical perspective but also considering ownership and future access. The topsoil (0–20 cm to plough depth) was moved to a new location in a similar environment and within the same soil association. The soil was disturbed under very dry conditions and placed back into the earth in the new location within 90 minutes, and thus as near to normal cultivation as possible. Additional plots were added to the experiment that will be amended to the pH treatments in the long-term experiment providing an exciting opportunity to assess how soil microbial communities change over time. Soil samples taken 2 years after the relocation of the soils indicate that the soil pH gradient (4.5–7.5) has been maintained. Safeguarding this long-term resource on soil pH helps us to predict the impacts of changed practice with regard to liming on productivity and also to address wider contemporary and future issues surrounding net zero, food security and soil protection.

Stabilization of Morphotropic Phase Boundary in Hafnia via Microwave Low‐Temperature Crystallization Process for Next‐Generation Dynamic Random Access Memory Technology

The morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), which arises from the combination of antiferroelectric and ferroelectric phases, demonstrates the highest dielectric constant (κ) compared to other phases. This emphasizes its potential as a leading contender for dielectric films in future dynamic random access memory (DRAM) capacitors. MPB‐based high‐κ materials using hafnia have shown a trade‐off between equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) and leakage current density (Jleak) when the crystallization temperature increases with scaling the thickness. Herein, a microwave annealing (MWA) method that can achieve low‐temperature crystallization below 350 °C is employed. The purpose of this method is to mitigate the trade‐off relationships and achieve the strict criteria of current DRAM capacitors. These criteria include low EOT (less than 4 Å) and Jleak (less than 10−7 A cm−2 at 0.8 V) characteristics. The MWA is capable of relatively low‐temperature annealing by supplying energy to the films through both thermal energy and dipole vibration energy. As a result, a record‐low EOT of 3.76 Å and a low leakage current characteristic of 4.2 × 10−8 A cm−2 at 0.8 V are achieved concurrently. It is confident that the research can be important in addressing the challenges associated with reducing the size of next‐generation DRAM capacitors.

Multiple Sclerosis and COVID-19: Health and healthcare access, health information and consumer co-created strategies for future access at times of crisis

BackgroundPersons with multiple sclerosis (MS) need regular access to medical services for optimal health outcomes. During the COVID-19 crisis, evidence indicated some detrimental health changes in persons with MS. Maintaining access to healthcare providers and healthcare information may minimise detrimental health changes during times of crisis. In Australia, there is limited evidence of consultation with people who have chronic health conditions or disabilities regarding government decisions to restrict healthcare access and in the provision of health guidance during the COVID-19 crisis. Yet, there are good examples of government consultation with other minority populations in Australia, leading to beneficial outcomes. ObjectiveTo identify MS community members’ (persons with MS carers, advocates, healthcare providers) concerns about the health and healthcare access of persons with MS, during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and to collaborate with consumers in the MS community to co-create strategies to improve future access and health information provision at times of crisis. MethodWe undertook a consumer-co-created mixed-method study in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic to identify healthcare access needs for MS. We presented results to our stakeholder group to identify support needs during crises. Persons with MS and care providers in the MS community completed an online survey and online interviews, and the stakeholder group participated in a stakeholder workshop. ResultsForty-four people participated in surveys, 33 completed interviews, and seven stakeholders participated in the stakeholder workshops. Three themes were identified from the surveys and interviews: health concerns, accessing healthcare services and communication sources. Healthcare providers (76.9 % of persons with MS and 77.8 % of care providers) and websites specific to the pandemic (76.9 % of persons with MS and 83.3 % of care providers) were identified by most survey respondents as preferred information sources during the COVID-19 crisis. Consultation with stakeholders resulted in the co-creation of strategies directed at communication, health, and lifestyle, as well as policies and protocols to address the needs of the MS community during crises. ConclusionWe listened to persons with MS and care providers to identify strategies to support health-communication, -access, and -lifestyle during crises. Consumer-created strategies are directed at national and local health advocacy organisations and governments. They are relevant for the coordinated healthcare planning of persons with chronic health conditions and disabilities during crises, such as those experienced by persons with MS.

Commissuralalignment and the ACURATE neo2 transcatheter aortic valve: Impact on valve performance.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is increasingly being used to treat severe aortic stenosis in younger patients. Accordingly, lifetime management regarding future reintervention and coronary access is a concern. To assess the impact of commissural alignment on ACURATE neo2 transcatheter aortic valve (TAV) performance. COMALIGN-neo2 was an observational, retrospective study enrolling consecutive TAVR patients treated with the ACURATE neo2 (October 2021 to October 2022). The degree of commissural (mis)-alignment (CMA) with the native aortic valve commissures was determined and transvalvular gradient, effective orifice area, patient-prosthesis mismatch (PPM), and aortic regurgitation (AR) were assessed. Among 825 patients, the mean age was 80.7 years and 42% were female. Commissural alignment was achieved in 60% of cases; mild (26%), moderate (9%), and severe misalignment (5%) were found less often. Severe PPM occurred more frequently in patients with severe CMA (14.7%) compared to aligned valves (p = 0.034). By multivariate analysis, severe CMA (odds ratio [OR]: 3.12, 95% confidence interval [CI][1.09-8.90]; p = 0.033) and lack of postdilatation (OR: 3.85, [1.33-11.1]; p = 0.012) were associated with severe PPM. Higher rates of ≥mild AR (51.4%) were found in TAVs implanted with severe CMA compared to aligned (34.3%), mildly (38.1%) or moderately (36.0%) misaligned TAVs (p = 0.030). Multivariate analysis identified severe CMA (OR: 2.05, [1.05-4.02]; p = 0.037) to be an independent predictor of ≥mild AR. COMALIGN-neo2 is the largest study to date assessing the impact of commissural alignment on acute TAV performance. Severe CMA with the ACURATE neo2 platform was associated with worse valve hemodynamics and increased risk for mild AR.

LIFETIME MANAGEMENT OF AORTIC STENOSIS IN EXTREME SETTING

Abstract A 51–year–old male patient returned to our attention due to symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. Despite the severity of the aortic valve disease, he had been previously turned down from aortic valve replacement by us because of lack of symptoms and very unfavorable anatomy. Indeed he had been irradiated at the age of 3 due to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and presented with porcelain aorta, small ascending aorta and aortic annulus. The patient returned to us with a 3–month history of progressive dyspnea (NYHA class IIa) and one episode of lipothymia during physical exercise. Physical examination, hematologic and biochemical investigations at admission were normal. Our trans–thoracic echocardiogram confirmed a trileaflet aortic valve (AV) that was severely stenotic and calcified with a mean gradient of 60 mmHg and an AV area of 0.5 cm2 (0.3 cm2/m2), in presence of good left ventricular systolic function with an ejection fraction (EF) of 60%. CT excluded coronary disease but, confirmed severe calcified aortic stenosis and porcelain aorta with small calcific sino–tubular junction and ascending aorta and protruding LVOT calcium. (Ascending aorta 19 mm; STJ 19 mm). The heart–team judged the patient not suitable for AVR and decided to perform a high–risk TAVI, leaving apical conduit as the last resort. From a technical standpoint, the LVOT calcium and the short and narrow STJ were high risk features for rupture with balloon expandable devices. On the other hand the short and narrow STJ with the narrow ascending aorta would represent a serious issue for the expansion of self–expanding devices and an even more troublesome feature for future coronary access and coronary occlusion in the setting of TAVI–in–TAVI down the road. Given the patient’s young age, a balloon expandable SAPIEN ultra 23 mm was chosen to be implanted with a two–step inflation to minimize the risk of STJ rupture. The prosthesis was partially expanded until anchoring was achieved on the aortic leaflets then, on continuous pacing, the balloon was rapidly collapsed, pushed down deeper under the STJ and fully inflated to achieve prosthesis’ inflow expansion. Intra–procedural and post–procedural course were uneventful and the patient was discharged home in 5th Day. Transthoracic echocardiogram at the dismission reveal a trans–aortic mean gradient of 18 mmhg, the absence of significant paravalvular leaks and a preserved ejection fraction. Pre–discharge CT scan confirmed feasibility of future TAVI–in–TAVI in case of need.

Regional comparison of the structure of human well-being related to ecosystem services in coastal areas of Japan: possible effect of anxiety unique to the ria coast

People living in coastal areas have the advantage of accessing a high level of ecosystem services, but are also exposed to the dangers inherent in living by the sea in an area prone to natural disasters. To achieve sustainable utilization of the high ecosystem services of coastal areas, establishment of an effective marine policy based on regional characteristics of human–nature interactions is essential. We compared the structure of perceived satisfaction for five components of human well-being (‘Security’, ‘Basic material for a good life’, ‘Good social relations’, ‘Health’, and ‘Freedom of choice and action’) derived from coastal ecosystem services among three sites in Japan (Wakasa, Sanriku, and Shima) that share the same natural and social backgrounds: highly dependent on fisheries industry, located in the same climate regime (temperate zone), and have similar topographical features (ria coast). Structural equation modeling using the results from questionnaire surveys showed that the three sites shared a common basic structure of the interactions among the five components of human well-being. However, the intensity of interactions among components differed among the three sites. Questionnaire surveys on anxiety about natural disasters and future access to marine ecosystem services were simultaneously conducted at the three sites. The site-specific anxieties were responsible for the difference in the interactions among the five components of human well-being. We propose a method that quantitatively evaluates both positive (satisfaction) and negative (anxiety) aspects of respondents’ subjective assessment as a useful tool for understanding the diversity of human–nature interactions caused by the region-specific natural and social backgrounds of coastal areas.

K-means non-uniform-quantization digital-analog radio-over-fiber scheme for THz-band photonics-aided wireless fronthaul.

We propose a non-uniform-quantization digital-analog radio-over-fiber (NUQ-DA-RoF) scheme based on an advanced K-means NUQ algorithm and demonstrate it experimentally in a 2-m 300-GHz photonics-aided wireless fronthaul system. Results show that the NUQ-DA-RoF scheme achieves a SNR gain of ∼1.9 dB compared to the uniform-quantization DA-RoF (UQ-DA-RoF) at an equivalent Common Public Radio Interface equivalent data rate (CPRI-EDR). Remarkably, the NUQ-DA-RoF scheme exhibits an ∼1.6-dB power sensitivity enhancement over the UQ-DA-RoF at the 256-QAM SNR threshold. These findings highlight the advantages of the NUQ-DA-RoF scheme over UQ-DA-RoF in terms of power budget and SNR improvement, suggesting promising prospects for future radio access networks and wireless fronthaul.

Migration-aware slot-based memory request scheduler to guarantee QoS in DRAM-PCM hybrid memories

Emerging hybrid memory technologies composed of non-volatile memories (NVM) and DRAMs exhibit significant access speeds and capacity improvement. High application performance is feasible by dynamic migration (or relocation) of pages (data) between the memory types. While NVM is used for its density during memory allocation, moving write-intensive pages from NVM to DRAM helps to improve the execution and response time of applications. Existing techniques propose solutions to dynamically identify the pages that need to be moved immediately or in regular intervals. Such an immediate or interval-based rigid migration regime may hamper the service of the regular memory requests, which in turn affects the memory service rate.To alleviate the impact on service rate and improve the quality-of-service (QoS) of the device, this paper proposes a scheduling method to identify the instant at which to migrate the eligible page. Along with regular memory requests, these eligible migration candidate pages are given reserved time slots by taking into account the current memory request rate. Our proposed methods aim to optimize the migration overheads by avoiding unnecessary migrations and at the same time guaranteeing future accesses to the migrated pages. This results in improved execution time and memory response time for the applications.

Towards Sustainable Agriculture: Integrating Agronomic Practices, Environmental Physiology and Plant Nutrition

Sustainable agriculture aims to meet the growing global demand for food without compromising environmental integrity. This review paper explores the integration of agronomic practices, environmental physiology, and plant nutrition as pathways toward sustainable crop production. Intensive agricultural practices have led to significant problems such as soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, and environmental pollution. Recent advancements in plant physiology have enhanced our understanding of plant growth and response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Optimizing crop production in a sustainable manner depends on insights into key processes like photosynthesis, water use efficiency, and nutrient uptake. This review discusses the role of plant growth-promoting microorganisms (PGPMs) as biofertilizers, providing an alternative to harmful agrochemicals. PGPMs can improve soil health and promote plant growth when applied to soil, seeds, or plant surfaces, reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Additionally, nanotechnology in agriculture is examined, illustrating how nanomaterials (NMs) and nano-based fertilizers can enhance nutrient absorption and increase crop yields. Beyond these scientific approaches, there is an urgent need to implement novel agricultural practices that support sustainability. The world population is growing at a disquieting rate, placing tremendous pressure on natural resources. This threatens future generations' access to nutritious food and clean air. Innovative approaches like climate-smart agriculture, organic farming, biodynamic agriculture, sustainable intensification, and regenerative agriculture, along with practices such as integrated farming systems, precision agriculture, integrated nutrient management, and integrated pest management, have proven to safeguard agricultural sustainability. By integrating these innovative approaches and practices, it is possible to meet the increasing demands for food while preserving the environment.

Influence of Mobility Constraints and Educational Experiences on Future Decent Work Access Among Chinese Emerging Adults

Drawing on the Psychology of Working Theory, the present study investigates whether and how mobility constraints and educational experiences predict access to future decent work among two samples of Chinese undergraduates. The results reveal that educational experiences are directly related to future decent work access, while also indirectly linked to future decent work access via career adaptability and work volition, respectively. In addition, both objective and subjective mobility constraints are not associated with future decent work access, yet they are indirectly linked to future decent work access through career adaptability and work volition, respectively. Moreover, subjective mobility constraints but not objective mobility constraints are indirectly linked to future decent work access through educational experiences. The results provide empirical evidence for the recent expansion of decent education and of the school-to-work transition expansion of the Psychology of Working Theory.