Opportunistic Networks Research Articles

Opportunistic Networks: An Empirical Research of Routing Protocols and Mobility Models

Opportunistic Networks: An Empirical Research of Routing Protocols and Mobility Models

A New Approach to Advertising Education: The Transformative Impact of a Collaborative Research Laboratory

This paper explores the potential of a collaborative research laboratory to enhance advertising education by catalyzing student learning, engagement, and faculty interaction. By offering a comprehensive blueprint through this lab, we illuminate how institutions can leverage the benefits of such labs through immersing students in practical consumer and advertising research, audience analysis, and industry-aligned research tools and methodologies. We delve into a variety of engagement methods, ranging from lab-bounded courses, faculty-guided research projects to special topic workshops, and expert guest lectures. Despite the significant long-term investment required, this study underscores the lab’s potential to draw new students, faculty, corporate partners, and community members due to its applicability to the industry and rich networking opportunities. Furthermore, we address challenges tied to the lab operation and management, such as faculty workload, while acknowledging the lab’s promising potential as a focal point of advertising education.

A beginner's guide to infrastructure‐less networking concepts

AbstractInfrastructure‐less networks connect communication devices end‐to‐end by managing links and routes independent of fixed networking facilities, relying on dedicated protocols running on end‐user devices. The large variety of infrastructure‐less concepts and related aspects can be confusing both for beginning Ph.D. students as well as experienced researchers who wish to get an overview of neighbouring areas to their own research foci. Frequently discussed topics such as different types of sensor‐, vehicular‐, or opportunistic networks are covered. The authors describe different networking concepts by looking at aspects such as the main properties, common applications, and ongoing research. Furthermore, the concepts by common characteristics such as node mobility, network density, or power consumption are compared. The authors also discuss network performance evaluation by describing commonly used metrics, different evaluation techniques, and software tools for simulation‐based evaluation. The references given in each section help obtain in‐depth information about the presented topics and give hints about open research questions, which can be a starting point for own investigations.

'Being and becoming a practice educator': An AHP online programme.

Five higher education institutions (HEIs) in Scotland with qualifying allied health professional (AHP) programmes developed an online programme in practice education. This paper focuses on the design, development and evaluation of this programme. The programme was developed using the ADDIE approach for instructional design and was launched on TURAS (NHS e-learning platform) in November 2020. In November 2021, an online questionnaire was distributed to evaluate the e-learning programme and AHPs' preferences for future practice education training. Of the 407 responses, 95% (n = 388) were working in the NHS. There was no preference for online or face-to-face format of training. For the majority, having flexibility of time and place was deemed to be important to manage learning particularly given high workloads and staff shortages. Out of the 29% (n = 118) who answered questions regarding the programme, more than 60% (n > 75) of respondents reported it was well organised, the content relevant and would support their learning. Free text comments suggested a desire for networking opportunities to discuss learning. An e-learning programme for new and existing AHP practice educators in Scotland was developed and launched in November 2020. Key feedback from participants was that they wanted to have opportunities for interaction with other learners to discuss and share their learning whether this was online or face-to-face. The programme now forms the foundation education in practice education for AHPs in Scotland and is supplemented with networking opportunities through synchronous online training with HEIs and via NHS Education for Scotland's virtual community.

Secured Scheme for Privacy Preserving and Node Authentication Mechanism for a Special Mobile Ad hoc Network

Opportunistic networks are a special type of Mobile Ad hoc network which are wirelessly interlinked nodes with the absence of end to end connectivity. All nodes in an opportunistic network are free to move in an environment. Due to the high degree of mobility of nodes, opportunistic networks differ significantly from the existing traditional networks and it works on store, carry &forward mechanism in which, each node has a communication range. Within its proximity, if any node comes, it can send and receive messages. In an opportunistic network, there is no proper infrastructure available for communication and node have limited storage and computational capabilities. The major problem being faced in an opportunistic network is the identification of normal and malicious nodes because due to the open nature of the opportunistic network, malicious nodes also can join the network and perform some malicious activities like Sybil attack. We propose a remedy to address the authentication and privacy issue that can arise in an opportunistic network. According to the findings of the simulation, the proposed research work satisfies the authentication and privacy criteria of an opportunistic network.

A coalition-driven examination of organization capacity to address food insecurity in Greater Houston: a qualitative research study.

Economic and social hardships have worsened food insecurity, particularly among low income and racial-ethnic minority groups. Given the core goal of the 150+ member Houston Health Equity Collective (HEC) to reduce food insecurity by 5% in 2025, we explored member organizations' capacity and challenges faced in screening and responding to food insecurity through care coordination efforts. A twice-administered Qualtrics XM survey (Provo, Utah) with 76 organizations, followed by five focus groups with 22 of these organizations, explored reach and response efforts to food insecurity. Qualitative assessments lasted between 0.5 to 1.5 h, were audio-recorded, cleaned, coded, and thematically analyzed using NVivo, version 11 (Burlington, Massachusetts). The qualitative study was guided by a general inductive approach. In total, over 6 h of audiovisual recording were extracted, and over 100 pages of text exported to NVivo for data analysis. The research team read and coded transcripts independently using the codebook, and met routinely to discuss and resolve codes -resulting in numerous revisions to the codebook. Coding structure was discussed at multiple meetings and differences were addressed through consensus. Predominant qualitative themes impacting food insecurity screening were "stigma and cultural-related barriers", "clinic capacity and attitudes", "need to focus on upstream influences of food insecurity and SDOH needs", "impact of COVID-19", and "need for HEC system responses". Main recommendations to enhance screening and reach included improving staff culture, enhancing cultural sensitivity across organizational practices, and using shared technology to coordinate care. Respondents stated that the HEC can drive these recommendations through networking opportunities, use of shared resource directory, and placing focus on upstream factors. Recommendations to target food insecurity must focus on organizational staff responsiveness and sensitivity to patients' needs. Of equal importance is the need for increased attention to the upstream influencers and integration of systems-level interventions to holistically target the barriers impacting food insecurity.

Speaking back to gender-based violence in New Brunswick schools through queer maker literacies with 2SLGBTQ+ youth

ABSTRACT Schools are a site of gender-based violence for queer, trans, and non-binary youth. Drawing on a participatory visual research project with three queer, trans, and non-binary youth, we argue that selfie and cellphilm production offer a glimpse into queer maker literacies. We suggest that the practice of making do-it-yourself (DIY) media productions with queer youth and older community collaborators in out-of-school settings provides opportunities for new intergenerational friendships and networks to be built. Through a discussion of the processes of critical making within the workshop, and the themes that arise in the cellphilm, including gender-based violence, queer experiences of school structures – and the way that friendship is positioned in relation to solidarity, collaboration, and speaking back – we argue that through facilitation and co-production of media, workshop spaces can be engineered with participants as spaces of solidarity, action, and safety even amidst institutional settings.

Social context‐aware macroscopic routing scheme for opportunistic network

AbstractOpportunistic networks (OppNets) have attracted widespread attention as wireless technologies have advanced. OppNets are widely used in delay‐tolerant applications because they route messages using a store‐carry‐forward mechanism. Recently, socially aware routing has been increasingly modeled for message dissemination in OppNets, where the message is routed selectively through cooperative nodes based on user interests; however, routing becomes extremely difficult as node density and data size increase. However, the current method fails to reduce data redundancy, message overhead, delay, and improve performance efficiency. To address the issues, this article proposes social context‐aware microscopic routing (SCAMR) for OppNets. SCAMR uses cluster‐based communication, novel social‐context association mapping, and an improved lost packet retrieval mechanism with minimal messaging overhead. In this work, the experiment was performed by considering three scenarios: varying node size, varying buffer size, and varying time‐to‐live size. The experimental results show that the SCAMR scheme improves delivery ratio by 71.25%, 67.87%, 69.18%, reduces delay by 33.93%, 26.68%, 35.36%, reduces the number of hop nodes (i.e., messaging overhead) by 77.84%, 71.53%, 76.04% over existing approaches namely, SCARF (SoCial‐Aware Reliable Forwarding Technique for Vehicular Communications), SRS (secure routing strategy), and EDT (effective data transmission) considering different scenarios, respectively.

A social relationship-based energy efficient routing scheme for Opportunistic Internet of Things

Opportunistic Internet of Things (OppIoT) combines Opportunistic Networks and the Internet of Things to provide opportunistic communication between IoT devices and human-created communities in order to improve network connectivity, reliability, and longevity. This is significant because it introduces a new approach to connect and communicate smart devices in situations where there is no end-to-end connectivity. Due to the non-stable existence of connectivity between nodes, building a scalable, flexible, interoperable, and energy efficient routing protocol is a difficult issue. This study presents a new routing protocol for the Opportunistic Internet of Things called Social relationship based Energy Efficient Routing (SEER), which bases routing decisions on the forwarding feasibility degree, residual energy, and buffer capacity of nodes. SEER surpasses EBR and EDR in terms of delivery probability, hop count, and overhead ratio, according to simulation results utilizing the Opportunistic Network Environment (The ONE) simulator.

Preface

2023 7th International Conference on Data Mining, Communications and Information Technology (DMCIT 2023), was successfully held on May 27, 2023, which was organized by Asia Pacific Institute of Science and Engineering (APISE), and sponsored by Jiangnan University. DMCIT conference has been held for six years since 2017 after successful onsite conferences or virtual conferences. DMCIT 2023 continued its tradition of providing a unique and excellent forum for exchanging research methodologies, exploring practical applications, and fostering innovative ideas.DMCIT 2023 strives to offer networking opportunities to meet and interact with the world-leading scientists, engineers and researchers as well as industrial partners in Core Data Mining, Communication Engineering, Information Technology Applications Topics.The conference was originally scheduled in Chongqing, China from May 26 to 28, 2023. Most authors cannot attend offline with personal reasons, but they can only attend online. As a result of small number of offline participants, it had to be turned into a fully virtual conference via Tencent meeting on May 27, 2023.The proceedings of this year’s edition comprised four main categories: “1. Image Processing and Computer Vision”; “2. Machine Learning and Data Analysis”; “3. Information Technology and Communication Systems”; “4. Optimization and Modeling”. All these submissions were rigorously reviewed by the Program Committee. The research tracks attracted 42 submissions in total, and out of 27 papers were accepted, including countries like Pakistan, Japan, Philippines and China, etc.On the conference day, 9 oral presentations and 18 posters presentation were arranged according to the participants’ choices. Two awards, one best oral presentation award and one best poster presentation award were selected by the end of conference. Four distinguished keynote speakers, including Prof. Shahram Latifi from University of Nevada, Las Vegas (USA); Prof. Yudong Zhang from The University of Leicester (UK) and Prof. João Alexandre Lôbo Marques from University of Saint Joseph, Macau SAR; and Prof. Miaowen Wen from South China University of Technology, delivered excellent speeches, sharing their latest and insightful research ideas.We extend our sincere gratitude to all the authors who submitted their papers to the DMCIT conference. We also like to express our great appreciation to the invited speakers, PC members, supporting staff, and all the organizing committee members for their great efforts in making the conference a sucess.Simon Fong, University of Macau, Macau S.A.R, ChinaConference Committee Chair, DMCIT 2023Lis of Committees are available in this pdf.

The bibliometrics assessment of opportunistic network protocols & simulation tools

Opportunistic Network (Oppnets) is one of the influencing network of wireless ad-hoc Network in today's era of research. Massive publications have already existed in Oppnets, which considers diverse techniques of Opportunistic Routing (OR) to provide an adequate selection of relay nodes. This article contributes to the bibliometric evaluation of the routing protocols and study of network simulation tools. Bibliometric analysis is the statistical analysis of published articles by researchers at particular time and place, with the relation among these articles. The data were pre-processed and analyzed with the VOS viewer and Bibliometrics, the professional mapping tool. 16 years of publication (from 2006 to 2022) were included in this evaluation process. Firstly, persuasive citation evaluation of countries and articles were addressed. Secondly, contribution assessment of documents according to countries and researchers. Thirdly, most effective sources, keywords, and trending topics with co-occurrence of bibliographic coupling were encountered. At last, 23 wireless-tools were analysed and also compared. These tools were also discussed with their unique features, leverages, and detriments. The primary objective is to give researchers enormous knowledge and help them elaborate their work in OR, and select appropriate tools to simulate their work. From this study; Readers, Researchers, and Authors can find easily the most reliable “researcher”, “document”, and “source of journal”. The author can find what work has been already published and illuminates their research work with more outcome.

Career Needs Assessment for Early Career Academic Surgeons Using a Modified Accelerated Delphi Process.

Over the past 2 decades, physicians' wellbeing has become a topic of interest. It is currently unclear what the current needs are of early career academic surgeons (ECAS). Consensus statements on academic needs were developed during a Delphi process, including all presenters from the previous European Surgical Association (ESA) meetings (2018-2022). The Delphi involved (1) a literature review, (2) Delphi form generation, and (3) an accelerated Delphi process. The Delphi form was generated by a steering group that discussed findings identified within the literature. The modified accelerated e-consensus approach included 3 rounds over a 4-week period. Consensus was defined as >80% agreement in any round. Forty respondents completed all 3 rounds of the Delphi. Median age was 37 years (interquartile range 5), and 53% were female. Majority were consultant/attending (52.5%), followed by PhD (22.5%), fellowship (15%), and residency (10%). ECAS was defined as a surgeon in 'development' years of clinical and academic practice relative to their career goals (87.9% agreement). Access to split academic and clinical contracts is desirable (87.5%). Consensus on the factors contributing to ECAS underperformance included: burnout (94.6%), lack of funding (80%), lack of mentorship (80%), and excessive clinical commitments (80%). Desirable factors to support ECAS development included: access to e-learning (90.9%), face-to-face networking opportunities (95%), support for research team development (100%), and specific formal mentorship (93.9%). The evolving role and responsibilities of ECAS require increasing strategic support, mentorship, and guidance on structured career planning. This will facilitate workforce sustainability in academic surgery in the future.

Networking benefits for SME members of co-operatives

Co-operatives are seen as communities working collectively to achieve common goals. One of their main principles is that of being concerned about the communities in which they operate. They can leverage this to create more effective networking opportunities amongst their membership. This study explores how SMEs can benefit from networking by being members of a co-operative. The research used a qualitative case study analysis of three co-operatives in Western Australia. We interviewed nine executives/managers and 18 SME members. Members and executives agree that the co-operative provided networking opportunities for members to talk, share information and knowledge through the social/community events. SMEs members can see each other as communities towards a common objective rather than competitors. This enabled networking to be more purposeful in building long lasting relationships whilst simultaneously being collective owners of the co-operative. Co-operatives, apart from economic pursuits, can facilitate networking events to enable SME members to engage in communications with each other to enhance the power in the relationships realised through networking. In this manner social capital is developed.

Sustainable Next-Generation Network Design using Social Aware and Delay Tolerant Approach

With the ever-growing popularity of smartphones, new services are emerging where the local and positioning aspects become more important. Additionally, new routing algorithms are being developed based on various networking technology such as Delay Tolerance Networks (DTN), Deviceto- Device communication, Opportunistic Network, etc. DTN is categorized as stable and unstable, a continuous path between the source and the destination node. Here, communication is done by carrying the message through the intermediate relay node on the store and carry forward paradigm. In this work, a Sustainable Energy Delay Tolerance Approach (SEDA) considers nodes mobility patterns for energy-efficient data transmission. This routing model is based on the appropriate usage of node information along with node mobility and its contacts for data dissemination. Next step is applying some techniques to predict the most likely position for next encounter. We will design and implement a social relation-aware routing relation-awareness the social relation as a part of the routing matrix. We assume that most of the movement of nodes are included in various numbers of social contacts; therefore, there is a higher probability of message delivery to the destination. Simulation results show that the proposed routing protocol improves the delivery ratio by reducing network size and distance, which also impacts energy saving.

Are International PhD Courses an Important Part of PhD Education in Sport and Exercise Psychology?

Abstract: PhD courses aim to improve PhD candidates’ research skills and, by that, to support their development process during their PhD studies. To investigate this objective, former PhD candidates ( N = 88, 51 % female, response rate 49 %), who participated in international PhD-courses in Sport and Exercise Psychology, were asked to complete an online survey to evaluate course elements of international PhD-courses hosted at Copenhagen and Leipzig University between 2009 and 2018. Networking opportunities, intercultural skill development, communicating in English, and acquisition of knowledge about Sport and Exercise Psychology-specific topics are reported as the most valuable aspects of international PhD-courses. Additionally, participants evaluated PhD-project presentations, workshops focusing on academic skills (e. g., publishing) and opportunities for social interaction as most profitable. Independent of participants’ PhD-phase, the majority of students reported sustainable benefits from their participation (e. g., co-publications). Academic funding (e. g., scholarships) seems to be an important factor for course participation. Recommendations for the implementation of international PhD-courses in Sport and Exercise Psychology include creating networking opportunities, offering workshops on academic skills, allowing time for informal interactions, and focusing on inclusion of PhD candidates from across the globe.

Optimizing the Role of Business Incubators in Higher Education: A Review of Supporting Factors and Barriers

This research paper explores the role of business incubators in higher education at a university in West Java, focusing on the review of supporting and barrier factors. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to gather comprehensive data. The findings highlight the importance of supporting factors such as access to resources, mentoring and expertise, networking opportunities, and funding support. Conversely, barrier factors include lack of funding and resources, limited access to mentoring and expertise, ineffective networking opportunities, institutional and policy constraints, and cultural and societal factors. The study provides valuable insights into optimizing the role of business incubators in higher education, emphasizing the need for adequate resources, effective mentoring, networking opportunities, supportive policies, and a favorable entrepreneurial culture.

Challenges and Opportunities for Physical Therapist Education Research: Results From an American Council of Academic Physical Therapy Needs Assessment Survey

Introduction. The physical therapy (PT) profession has cited a need for education research, yet the needs of researchers are not fully understood. Furthermore, there continues to be a limited understanding of where resources are most needed to support and advance education research. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers and opportunities for education research to support PT faculty. Review of Literature. Scholarly productivity may be related to the attainment of an academic doctoral degree, research culture within an institution, and faculty time devoted to research. There is a lack of knowledge about what factors relate to the production of education research and the types of support needed for education researchers. Subjects. Two hundred sixteen PT education researchers. Methods. An open survey invitation was sent through email through the American Council of Academic Physical Therapy newsletter. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine factors that were associated with scholarly productivity of education researchers in PT. Open responses to a question regarding needed resources for engagement in education research were qualitatively analyzed. Results. The multiple regression analysis yielded a large effect (R2 = 0.31), demonstrating that faculty years of experience, faculty rank, and having an academic doctoral degree were correlated with scholarly productivity. “Faculty time/workload” was considered “very important” or higher to the production of education research by 87% of respondents. This item was rated of highest importance on the survey. Mentorship was considered the most important external resource, with 69% of respondents rating it as “very important” or higher, whereas “other personal commitments (ie, family care, household management, other community-related volunteer commitments)” was the most important personal factor (rated by 70% of the respondents as “very important” or higher). Open-ended responses further suggest that institution logistics, appropriate dissemination venues, and funding are areas of need to foster success in engaging in education research. Discussion and Conclusion. Results highlight challenges and opportunities for resource investment in education research. Among these are time and funding. Existing professional networking and educational opportunities need to be continually evaluated for their effectiveness. Further development should focus on mitigating these barriers while considering the logistics of the researcher's institution.

Consortium for violence prevention research, leadership training, and implementation for excellence (CONVERGE): a protocol to train science leaders in gender-based-violence and violence-against-children research for impact.

Gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC) are two prevalent and highly interconnected global health challenges, yet data and research capacities to study these forms of violence and to generate evidence-based policies and programs remain limited. To address critical shortages in research capacity in Vietnam and to establish a model for other Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), we are establishing CONVERGE-the Consortium for Violence Prevention Research, Implementation, and Leadership Training for Excellence. Based on a needs assessment with partners in Vietnam, CONVERGE will provide a comprehensive research training program supporting 15 long-term, postdoctoral trainees with multi-disciplinary research training in GBV and VAC. We also will offer in-country trainings and short-courses to 40 short-term mid-career academic trainees and 60 short-term practitioner/stakeholder trainees over 5 years to build productive GBV and VAC academic, scientific, and practitioner networks. The CONVERGE training program has four components: (1) 14 h of virtual/in-person annual mentorship training to prepare research mentors and to create a pipeline of future mentors in Vietnam; (2) a one-month intensive research training for long-term postdoctoral fellows at Emory University; (3) a structured 17-month, in-country mentored research project for long-term trainees that results in a peer-reviewed manuscript and a subsequent grant submission; and, (4) week-long in-country intensive translational trainings on implementation science, advanced topics in leadership, and advanced topics in science dissemination. Opportunities for on-going virtual training and professional networking will be provided for CONVERGE trainees and mentors in Vietnam with other trainees and mentors of D43s focused on injury/violence prevention, D43s housed at Emory, and D43s with other institutions in Southeast Asia. To assess the reach, implementation, fidelity, and effectiveness of these four components, we will implement a rigorous, mixed-methods, multi-level evaluation strategy using process and outcome measures. Findings from the evaluation will be used to refine program components for future trainee and mentor cohorts and to assess long-term program impact. Led by Emory University in the US and Hanoi Medical University in Vietnam, CONVERGE represents leading institutions and experts from around the world, with a goal of providing mentorship opportunities for early-career scientists with an interest in violence prevention.

Energy Efficiency of Mobile Devices Using Fuzzy Logic Control by Exponential Weight with Priority-Based Rate Control in Multi-Radio Opportunistic Networks

The rapid development of mobile devices and wireless network technologies have made them indispensable. This has created a demand for faster networks and longer battery life. The assurance of a stable network service and the enhancement of network experiences for mobile devices is equally crucial to meeting these demands. To address these challenges, mobile devices employ various techniques to decrease power consumption when they connect to wireless networks. Moreover, enhancing the endurance of mobile devices to maintain stable network services is critical when using wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a dual-radio opportunistic network for energy efficiency (DRONEE)–exponential weight with priority-based on rate control (WPRC) method which can extend and enhance the DRONEE hybrid network. By leveraging fuzzy logic control (FLC) and quality of service (QoS), our proposed method effectively solves the weighting problem in the DRONEE–weight (DRONEE–W) method. Through efficient allocation of network resources within each cluster, we minimize resource wastage and maximize resource utilization. Simulation results demonstrate the superior performance of our DRONEE–WPRC method in terms of throughput, buffer size, delay time, and power consumption compared to other methods. Therefore, our proposed method achieves optimal network resource allocation and energy efficiency.

Practical Application of Mesh Opportunistic Networks

Opportunistic networks allow for communication between nearby mobile devices through a radio connection, avoiding the need for cellular data coverage or a Wi-Fi connection. The limited spatial range of this type of communication can be overcome by using nodes in a mesh network. The purpose of this research was to examine a commercial application of electronic mesh communication without a mobile data plan, Wi-Fi, or satellite. A mixed study, with qualitative and quantitative strategies, was designed. An experimental session, in which participants tested opportunistic networks developing different tasks for performance, was carried out to examine the system. Different complementary approaches were adopted: a survey, a focus group, and an analysis of participants’ performance. We found that the main advantage of this type of communication is the lack of a need to use data networks for one-to-one and group communications. Opportunistic networks can be integrated into professional communication workflows. They can be used in situations where traditional telephones and the Internet are compromised, such as at mass events, emergency situations, or in the presence of frequency inhibitors.