Integrated Communication Research Articles

Lessons learnt from community referral and follow up of sick young infants with possible severe bacterial infection in Turkana County, Kenya

IntroductionManagement of possible severe bacterial infections in young infants (0–59 days) requires timely identification of danger signs and prompt administration of efficacious antibiotic treatment. The Possible Severe Bacterial Infection guidelines underscore the importance of close follow up in an outpatient basis to ensure treatment adherence and early detection of illness-related complications. The purpose of this study was to strengthen the follow up and referral of sick young infants on day 4 and 8 by introducing community-led interventions that facilitated community health volunteers to identify sick young infants, conduct community reviews, link data with responsive facilities, and refer appropriately. MethodsSix health facilities were included in a longitudinal, descriptive, mixed methods approach weaved around an initial formative context assessment and three-monthly assessments between October 2019 to January 2020 with a endline assessment in August 2020. Quantitative data was extracted from facility registers to identify gaps in follow up and referral feasibility. Qualitative data was through focus group discussions with community health volunteers and key informant interviews with frontline providers. ResultsQualitative data provided insights into key barriers and facilitators of community follow up and referral. Barriers include community socio-cultural practices, competing tasks, dysfunctional community referral pathway, drivers of common infections, and unavailability of essential commodities. Key facilitators entail indication of competency in identification of danger signs in sick young infants, presence of older women, men, and community resource persons that can leveraged on in community engagement and sensitization, and mothers are the primary decision makers in care seeking. There was increased utilization of decision support tools and an increase in the number of sick young infants managed in dispensaries. The COVID-19 pandemic however negatively impacted community follow up and referral of sick young infants. ConclusionEssential barriers and facilitators to follow up and community referral entwined with facility-based vulnerabilities were highlighted. A two-pronged intervention on improving communication, linkage and subsequent follow up of sick young infants was employed in the six participating facilities. The feasibility, adoption, and fidelity of strengthening community facility linkage through integrated communication strategies was documented, indicative of a successful community-facility linkage in dispensaries and health centers despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improving the Understanding and Managing of the Quality of Life of Patients With Lung Cancer With Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome Measures: Scoping Review.

Electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs) are essential to clinical practice and research. The growth of eHealth technologies has provided unprecedented opportunities to collect information systematically through ePROMs. Although they are widely used in scientific research, more evidence is needed to determine their use and implementation in daily clinical practice. For example, when diagnosed, patients with lung cancer are at an advanced stage of the disease. This entails tremendous burden because of high mortality and losses in the different dimensions of the human being. In this case, monitoring symptoms and other outcomes help improve the patient's quality of life. ePROMs offered unprecedented opportunities to collect information systematically. Our goal was to demonstrate that ePROMs are more useful in controlling patient symptoms, lung cancer, and overall survival than their alternatives, such as nonelectronic PROMs. This exploratory review considered articles published between 2017 and 2022 identified through searches of PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. We found 5097 articles; after removing the duplicates, we reduced them to 3315. After reading the summary, we were left with 56. Finally, after applying the exclusion criteria, we reviewed 12. The 5-step framework by Arksey and O'Malley was used to refine the initial search results with the following research questions: Do ePROMs help physician-patient communication? To what extent do they improve decision-making? Are institutions and their digitization policies barriers to or facilitators of this process? and What else is needed for routine implementation? This review included 12 articles. We found that ePROMs are an integrative and facilitative communication tool, highlighting their importance in the relationship between palliative care and medical oncology. ePROMs help assess patient symptoms and functionality more accurately and facilitate clinical decision-making. In addition, it allows for more precise predictions of overall patient survival and the adverse effects of their treatments. The main institutional obstacles are the initial investment, which can be costly, and the data protection policy. However, enablers included better funding through the development of telemedicine, support from institutional leaders to overcome resistance to change, and transparent policies to ensure the safe and secure use of ePROMs. Routine collection of remote ePROMs is an effective and valuable strategy for providing real-time clinical feedback. In addition, it provides satisfaction to patients and professionals. Optimizing ePROMs in patients with lung cancer leads to a more accurate view of health outcomes and ensures quality patient follow-up. It also allows us to stratify patients based on their morbidity, creating specific follow-ups for their needs. However, data privacy and security are concerns when using ePROMs to ensure compliance with local entities. At least four barriers were identified: cost, complex programming within health systems, safety, and social and health literacy.

Building a risky-safe-space: Using reflective pedagogies and values to support writing development in work based learning

The concepts of ‘graduateness’ and graduate attributes became contested terrain before COVID-19 destabilised even the most assured of shared learning constructions. Indeed, for those of us immersed in the delivery of work-based learning (WBL), this has long been the case. Promotion of reductive notions of ‘skills’ acquisition to comply neatly with an employability agenda holds little relevance for those students already engaged in full time careers, and with a wealth of professional experience. What can hold influence and interest, however, is the opportunity to engage in meaningful, agentic, professionally-aligned reflective practices as a scaffolded route to promoting self-awareness and developing confidence in mapping competences from the professional domain to the academic (and vice versa). This paper shares an account of taking an embedded approach to supporting the development of academic literacies amongst work-based learners in one UK HEI. In particular, it will consider the use of reflective pedagogical tools and values in supporting work-based learners to become confident and adaptable writers. Discussion considers how work-based pedagogies and approaches may have far-reaching relevance in a post-pandemic landscape, where reskilling and professional agility are likely to become more prolific aspects of education and work. Writing itself is framed as an integrated communication practice that encompasses literature retrieval, reading, evaluation, synthesis and articulation of argument. The paper will describe pre-pandemic academic support activities and share qualitative survey data in which students consider their confidence as both professional and academic writers. It concludes with consideration of how some of the approaches outlined may have relevance for the wider academic community.

Integrated Communication Model to Develop Tourism in Coastal Areas of Southeast Sulawesi

This study aims to provide an overview of tourism improvement through communication. The development of tourism in coastal areas requires integrated communication. Improving the image of the destination can be enhanced through effective integrated communication. Local governments can use integrated communication as a driving tool in tourism development. They were using a qualitative approach to describe and describe the core of the problem. Research informants are the government, private sector and the community as stakeholders. Observation, interview and documentation are collection techniques used by authors. The procedure in this study is to simplify the collected data, systematically present the oral data of the interview and recording results into written data, and process, interpret and analyse more comprehensively. Tourism communication is an activity of the government, society and tourism business owners to exchange information about the substance of tourism consisting of tourism marketing activities, delivery of destination image information, messages about accessibility and information on the availability of human resources and Institutional. The outline of the tourism communication model shows the importance of communication elements that frame the overall process of tourism communication channels. The persuasive communication process of mass communication, interpersonal communication and group communication on tourism marketing activities in coastal areas is an integral part of tourism communication

Piecewise-Stationary Multi-Objective Multi-Armed Bandit With Application to Joint Communications and Sensing

We study a multi-objective multi-armed bandit problem in a dynamic environment. The problem portrays a decision-maker that sequentially selects an arm from a given set. If selected, each action produces a reward vector, where every element follows a piecewise-stationary Bernoulli distribution. The agent aims at choosing an arm among the Pareto optimal set of arms to minimize its regret. We propose a Pareto generic upper confidence bound (UCB)-based algorithm with change detection to solve this problem. By developing the essential inequalities for multi-dimensional spaces, we establish that our proposal guarantees a regret bound in the order of γTlog(T/γT) when the number of breakpoints γT is known. Without this assumption, the regret bound of our algorithm is γTlog(T). Finally, we formulate an energy-efficient waveform design problem in an integrated communication and sensing system as a toy example. Numerical experiments on the toy example and synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the efficiency of our policy compared to the current methods.

Integrated Communications and Jamming: Toward Dual-Functional Wireless Networks Under Antagonistic Environment

The multi-functional integrated systems have been emerging recently. This article proposes a generalized framework, named integrated communications and jamming (ICAJ), which has potential to enable communication and jamming to reinforce each other in one system, then achieve more reliable communication and more efficient jamming. Specifically, we first introduce the concept and benefits of ICAJ. In particular, we make a comparison between the proposed ICAJ and the integrated of sensing and communications (ISAC) in the literature. Then, typical use cases including jamming-aided communication and communication-aided jamming are given. Next, performance metrics, as well as fundamental trade-offs in ICAJ are discussed. Further, waveform designs including non-overlapped and overlapped ones are analyzed, respectively. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed ICAJ system, a case study of multiple-input multiple-output based ICAJ for spectrum refarming is presented. Simulation results show that both communication and jamming performance of ICAJ are better than traditional separated designs. Finally, potential research directions are listed to set the path for designing efficient ICAJ systems.

Three Satellites Dynamic Switching Range Integrated Navigation and Positioning Algorithm with Clock Bias Cancellation and Altimeter Assistance

Challenging environments such as cities, canyons, and forests have become key factors affecting navigation stability. When users pass through intricate overpasses and winding road sections, due to the fluctuation of the geoid, there will be a large fluctuation problem in the elevation measurement error of the user’s receiver. In addition, even if the low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation has thousands of satellites, there will be no technical problems in regard to destroying LEO satellites with existing technology in extreme situations such as warfare and in challenging environments such as dense forests, canyons, and ravines, where three or fewer visible satellites is a foreseeable scenario. To solve the problem of providing location services in such challenging environments, first, we analyze the relationship between temperature and atmospheric pressure and altitude; and then, based on this, we propose an initialization correction method for elevation measurements. Next, based on the broadband LEO constellation, we give an integrated navigation and positioning scheme with the assistance of both a clock bias elimination system and an altimeter. Finally, the proposed scheme is simulated and verified. The experimental results show that the dynamic switching of LEO satellites, combined with the assistance of the altimeter, can effectively improve the stability and positioning accuracy of navigation and positioning and can suppress the large navigation errors caused by the long switching time without the assistance of the altimeter. This allows the switching time to be extended; thus, it can be used as a technical reference solution for integrated communication and navigation (ICN) in the future.

Research on Sports Brands Integrated Communication Marketing Strategy in the Age of New Media: A Case Study of Lululemon

This paper focuses on the application of intergrated marketing communication in sports brands. And take Luluemon as an example to investigate the marketing stragtegy. With the development of the consumers' consumption behavior, sports brands need to change their marketing concepts and innovate their marketing thinking. By prioritizing consumers, integrating various communication channels as well as setting new guidelines for different marketing, Lululemon has already achieved success in marketing by implementing integrated marketing communication. Also, the application of Internet media technology and thinking is essential to establish brand image, transmit brand connotation, and enhance the influence of the brand. This paper provides an important reference for sports brands to implement integrated marketing communication in the new media era.

Sticky particle Cucker–Smale dynamics and the entropic selection principle for the 1D Euler-alignment system

We develop a global wellposedness theory for weak solutions to the 1D Euler-alignment system with measure-valued density, bounded velocity, and locally integrable communication protocol. A satisfactory understanding of the low-regularity theory is an issue of pressing interest, as smooth solutions may lose regularity in finite time. However, no such theory currently exists except for a very special class of alignment interactions. We show that the dynamics of the 1D Euler-alignment system can be effectively described by a nonlocal scalar balance law, the entropy conditions of which serves as an entropic selection principle that determines a unique weak solution of the Euler-alignment system. Moreover, the distinguished weak solution of the system can be approximated by the sticky particle Cucker–Smale dynamics. Our approach is inspired by the work of Brenier and Grenier on the pressureless Euler equations.

Waveform-to-Waveform End-to-End Learning Framework in a Seamless Fiber-Terahertz Integrated Communication System

Seamless fiber-terahertz integrated communication has emerged as a promising technology in the special field of 6G, including mobile fronthaul and wireless bridges. Electronic terahertz communication systems have the advantages of high-level integration, small form factors, and potentially low costs, but their drawbacks are their small bandwidths and high harmonic interference levels. In this paper, an end-to-end learning-based waveform-to-waveform automatic equalization framework (W2WAEF) is proposed to overcome the above shortcomings in a seamless fiber-terahertz integrated communication system. An attention-based three-tributary heterogeneous neural network (ATTH) is designed to simulate the channel model of a seamless fiber-wireless communication system, taking fiber optics, optical-to-electrical conversion, and electrogenerated terahertz waves into account. With the proposed method, a data rate of 80.78 Gbps is experimentally demonstrated for discrete multitone modulation (DMT) signals over 5 km of fiber and 1 m of 209-GHz terahertz signals under a 20% soft decision-forward error correction (SD-FEC) threshold of 2.4 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−2</sup> . Compared with an approach without preprocessing, a receiver sensitivity gain exceeding 1.3 dB is successfully achieved at a data rate of 60 Gbps. The proposed method is a promising scheme for meeting the high speed and low-cost demands of future seamless fiber-terahertz integrated communication systems.

Combined Improved CEEMDAN and Wavelet Transform Sea Wave Interference Suppression

Cross water–air interface acoustic and electromagnetic integrated communication (AEIC) technology refers to an underwater speaker that excites the water surface micro-amplitude wave (WSAW) on the water’s surface, and millimeter wave radar detects the vibrations of the WSAW to realize the transmission of information. The research on cross-media communication meets many challenges due to the large amplitude of the water surface disturbance and the small amplitude of the WSAW. In this paper, a novel sea wave interference suppression method based on improved complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and wavelet transform (WT) is presented. This method divides the phase change into different intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and obtains a reconstructed scale of the WSAW signal through wavelet decomposition and correlation procession to separate the WSAW signal and the sea wave interference. It is proved to be better than the reference filtering method by experiment. By using this novel method, the bit error rate (BER) of the communication system can be reduced effectively.

Tailoring Group Delay Dispersion of Spatial Phaser using Anisotropic Metasurface and Polarized Incident Waves

AbstractMetasurface‐based spatial phaser, exhibiting dispersive group delay responses, is able to perform real‐time analogue signal processing on the temporal spectrum of spatial electromagnetic waves, e.g., Fourier transformation, pulse chirping, pulse spread, and compression. The functionality of a spatial phaser is closely related to its group delay dispersion slope. For instance, for an up‐chirped incident pulse, the positive‐slope‐dispersion phaser spreads the pulse whereas the negative‐slope‐dispersion one compresses the pulse. Most reported spatial phasers exhibit fixed dispersion slopes and hence perform single functionality only, which cannot meet the demand of multifunctional systems in communication and sensing applications. In this paper, a new way is proposed to control and tune the dispersion slope of spatial phasers using polarization of incident waves, which is simpler and more efficient than conventional approaches based on tunable circuits. To verify the proposed method, a first‐order spatial phaser is designed and experimentally demonstrated within 9.4–10.6 GHz. It is able to generate negative‐slope, positive‐slope, and zero‐slope group delay dispersions, in case of x‐, y‐, and ±45°‐polarized waves. Such a reconfigurable phaser may find wide applications in integrated communication and sensing.

Joint Secure Transmit Beamforming Designs for Integrated Sensing and Communication Systems

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), which allows individual radar and communication systems to share the same spectrum bands, is an emerging and promising technique for alleviating spectrum congestion problems. In this paper, we investigate how to exploit the inherent interference from strong radar signals to ensure the physical layer security (PLS) for the considered multi-user multi-input single-output (MU-MISO) communication and colocated multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radar coexistence system. In particular, with known eavesdroppers' channel state information (CSI), we propose to jointly design the transmit beamformers of communication and radar systems to minimize the maximum eavesdropping signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) on multiple legitimate users, while guaranteeing the communication quality-of-service (QoS) of legitimate transmissions, the requirement of radar detection performance, and the transmit power constraints of both radar and communication systems. When eavesdroppers' CSI is unavailable, we develop a joint artificial noise (AN)-aided transmit beamforming design scheme, which utilizes residual available power to generate AN for disrupting malicious receptions as well as satisfying the requirements of both legitimate transmissions and radar target detection. Extensive simulations verify the advantages of the proposed joint beamforming designs for ISAC systems on secure transmissions and the effectiveness of the developed algorithms.

Resource Allocation for Integrated Sensing and Communication in Digital Twin Enabled Internet of Vehicles

With the development of the sixth-generation (6 G) network, virtualization remains critical. The key to future virtualization lies in the service provisioning capability of the network and the service requirements of end users, which will lead to virtualization of the network and end users. Therefore, this paper proposes a holistic network virtualization architecture that integrates digital twin (DT) and network slicing to achieve the network management of service-centric and user-centric. With the explosive growth of latency-sensitive and computing-intensive in-vehicle applications, limited in-vehicle computing resources are difficult to meet diverse network requirements, and vehicle edge computing (VEC) has become a potential solution. However, computation offloading may face the dilemma of excessive upload traffic and unbearable upload time. Therefore, in order to minimize the overall response time (ORT) of the system, this paper proposes a new environment aware offloading mechanism (EAOM) based on the integrated sensing and communication system (ISAC) to solve the joint optimization problem of task scheduling and resource allocation. Considering the mobility of vehicles and the time-varying of environment, the optimization problem is modeled as a Markov decision process, and an improved algorithm combining Shapley-Q value and deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) is used to solve it. The simulation results indicate the effectiveness and superiority of the scheme proposed in our work.

SENSOR PLATFORM OF INDUSTRIAL TOMOGRAPHY FOR DIAGNOSTICS AND CONTROL OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESSES

This article presents an industrial tomography platform used to diagnose and control technological processes. The system has been prepared so that it is possible to add individual sensors cooperating with the system of an intelligent cyber-physical platform with an open architecture. Additionally, it is possible to configure and cooperate with external systems freely. As part of the experimental work, a platform has been developed that allows individual subsystems and external customer systems to work together. The cyber-physical system, a new generation of digital systems, focuses mainly on the complex interplay and integration between cyberspace and the physical world. A cyber-physical system consists of highly integrated computational, communication, control and physical elements. The solution focuses mainly on the complex interplay and integration between cyberspace and the physical world.

Saving Face: How the University of Georgia Communicated During its 1961 Racial Integration Crisis and Maintained its Image through Stakeholder Management

Few studies have explored higher education desegregation in the nation’s first state to charter a state-supported university, Georgia. The present study is the first to document the University’s racial integration communication with various stakeholder groups as well as the University’s public relations response and strategy. The study examines the University’s public relations function and the analysis shows how the public relations strategy was to save face when addressing issues raised by its stakeholder groups. The study’s findings demonstrate that the University employed public relations, communications and stakeholder management strategies to “save face” and maintain good rapport with external audiences.

Exercise in Adolescence Enhances Callosal White Matter Refinement in the Female Brain in a Rat Model of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

A total of 1 in 20 infants born annually are exposed to alcohol prenatally, which disrupts neurodevelopment and results in several disorders categorized under the umbrella term Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Children and adolescents affected by FASD exhibit delayed maturation of cerebral white matter, which contributes to deficits in executive function, visuospatial processing, sensory integration, and interhemispheric communication. Research using animal models of FASD have uncovered that oligoglia proliferation, differentiation, and survival are vulnerable to alcohol teratogenesis in the male brain due in part to the activation of the neuroimmune system during gestation and infancy. A comprehensive investigation of prenatal alcohol exposure on white matter development in the female brain is limited. This study demonstrated that the number of mature oligodendrocytes and the production of myelin basic protein were reduced first in the female corpus callosum following alcohol exposure in a rat model of FASD. Analysis of myelin-related genes confirmed that myelination occurs earlier in the female corpus callosum compared to their counterparts, irrespective of postnatal treatment. Moreover, dysregulated oligodendrocyte number and myelin basic protein production was observed in the male and female FASD brain in adolescence. Targeted interventions that support white matter development in FASD-affected youth are nonexistent. The capacity for an adolescent exercise intervention to upregulate corpus callosum myelination was evaluated: we discovered that volunteer exercise increases the number of mature oligodendrocytes in alcohol-exposed female rats. This study provides critical evidence that oligoglia differentiation is difficult but not impossible to induce in the female FASD brain in adolescence following a behavioral intervention.

Communication networks do not predict success in attempts at peer production

Abstract Although peer production has created valuable information goods like Wikipedia, the GNU/Linux operating system, and Reddit, the majority of attempts at peer production achieve very little. In work groups and teams, coordination and social integration—manifested via dense, integrative communication networks—predict success. We hypothesize that the conditions in which new peer production communities operate make communication problems common and make coordination and integration more difficult, and that variation in the structure of project communication networks will predict project success. In this article, we measure communication networks for 999 early-stage peer production wikis. We assess whether communities displaying network markers of coordination and social integration are more productive and long-lasting. Contrary to our expectations, we find a very weak relationship between communication structure and collaborative performance. We propose that technology may serve as a partial substitute for communication in coordinating work and integrating newcomers in peer production.

Symbolic Interactionism and Communication Patterns: Insights from Army Wives Union Organizations (Persit-KCK), Indonesia

This study aims to determine the interaction and communication patterns of the Persit-KCK (Army Wives Association) organization that have an impact on harmony and cohesiveness among members of the Persit-KCK organization and that build a strong commitment to providing benefits to the wider community in Indonesia. This commitment also increases the loyalty of every soldier of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI-AD) and their responsibility for upholding state sovereignty, maintaining the territorial integrity of the country, and protecting the whole nation and all of Indonesia from bloodshed from threats and disturbances. The research method used by researchers is a qualitative research method. Researchers used qualitative research in this study to obtain more detailed and in-depth findings and to describe the reality that cannot be measured numerically; however, to obtain the best findings from qualitative data analysis, this research was assisted by Nvivo 12 Pro tools. The study assessed an organization for “soldiers’ wives” and “military wives” by focusing on activities carried out by the Persit-KCK organization (the Army Wives Union, “TNI”, in Indonesia). This activity reveals the use of symbols in a social communication that helps each Persit-KCK member to build an understanding of their duties and roles as soldiers’ wives (TNI-AD), and to contribute positively to the wider community. The study also reveals that institutional communication patterns of Persit-KCK prioritize integrative communication among members (activities that strengthen communication among TNI-AD wives) in all regions in Indonesia. Volunteer and non-profit activities of Persit-KCK have made it a driving actor for the growth of social capital during the COVID-19 pandemic in various regions in Indonesia.

Implementasi Manajemen Kinerja Pemasaran pada Asuransi

Businesses must retain their clients to remain profitable. The academic field of management marketing considers customer relationship management (CRM) to be best suited to achieve this, whereas communications management focuses more on public relations (PR). The aim of this study is to analyze theories in the two disciplines and derive a theory that integrates CRM and PR client retention frameworks. The framework was then tested in-depth interviews with short-term insurance clients and short-term insurance providers (brokers and direct insurance) in South Africa to obtain perspectives from both parties. The importance of some of the fundamental elements found in the literature is emphasized, the importance of two elements is questioned and it is established that there are three inconsistencies between what providers consider important for clients to retain and what clients consider necessary for them to remain in a relationship with the insurer. This probably explains the many failed client retention attempts of South African brokers and direct insurers. Six new CRM and/or PR elements, not found in the literature, are presented in the article for exploration in future research. To assist client retention in the highly competitive short-term insurance industry, the results are applied to the core principles of Niemann's (2005) SA strategic integrated communication (IC) implementation model. Finally, the authors present an integrated approach to client retention strategy in the South African short-term insurance industry, combining marketing and communication theory.&#x0D; Keywords: insurance, work management,