Opportunistic Networks Research Articles

Abstract A109: The growth and evolution of GMaP Region 3 Technical Training Summits

Abstract Introduction: The Geographic Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program (GMaP) is a national program funded by the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities with the mission to expand and diversify the pipeline of cancer researchers. GMaP Region 3 is one of seven regions, and is comprised of members from seven Southwestern US states. The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center serves as the hub for GMaP Region 3, and has hosted three seminal training Summits. Methods: GMaP Technical Training Summits provided hands-on learning experiences for cancer health disparities (CHD) trainees and promoted collaboration among Region 3’s NCI-designated cancer centers. GMaP Region 6 collaborated with Region 3 to host the final two Summits. Each of the three Summits had differing aims, but the core goals were to strengthen grant writing skills, enhance professional development, in addition to providing opportunities for networking and mentorship. Summit activities included keynote addresses by senior researchers, many of whom are members of historically underrepresented populations, interactive grant writing sessions, and mock grant reviews. Attendee feedback was captured via REDCap surveys and qualitative experience summary reports. Results: Each Summit had increasing attendance: 2016 Summit, n=29, 2019 Summit, n=35; 2023 Summit, n=48. Summit length grew from 1 full day to 2.5 days of sessions. Although the majority of participants were from Regions 3 and 6 there were also attendees from Region 2 and 5 demonstrating the desirability of this type of intensive grant writing training. Attendees were largely satisfied with their experience and in 2023 the overall reception of the summit material was 87% positive. Attendees highlighted the benefits of receiving individualized feedback on their Specific Aims page and the ability to meet people doing similar work. Summits were described as “invigorating” and “motivational”. Participants across the years highlighted the value of hearing from influential researchers in the field and cited these keynote addresses as being “inspirational”. Challenges of hosting these Summits included logistical barriers specifically pertaining to ensuring that scholars had the financial support they needed to attend prior to each event. In addition, tailoring the Summit curriculum and coordinating appropriate speakers was an ongoing learning process. Recommendations: Grant writing is both a science and an art and many scholars, particularly those from underrepresented groups, do not have access to the focused training necessary to develop successful proposals. The GMaP Region 3 Summits provided opportunities for scholars to learn from experienced grant writers and network with their peers. Future efforts to provide tailored grant writing education to newer cancer researchers should be prioritized to support their career development and diversify the types of CHD research proposed and ultimately funded. Citation Format: Shoshana Adler Jaffe, Dolores D. Guest, John Torres, Miria Kano, Andrew Sussman, Shiraz I. Mishra. The growth and evolution of GMaP Region 3 Technical Training Summits [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A109.

Abstract A031: Leveraging the Meharry-Vanderbilt alliance to develop a faculty affiliate program to expand cross-collaborative research

Abstract Background: Academic institutions struggle to break down research silos and boost interdisciplinary collaboration. The challenge is magnified when multiple partners seek to build research collaboratives. The Meharry-Vanderbilt-Tennessee State Cancer Partnership (MVTCP) is one of the longest-standing Comprehensive Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (U54 CPACHE) in the nation and includes faculty from 4 partner institutions, including 2 historically black institutions: Meharry Medical College (MMC), Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Vanderbilt University, and Tennessee State University. While this partnership has been extremely productive, a 2022 MVTCP strategic planning session indicated opportunities for deeper scientific discovery and community engagement. The Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA) is a 20+year collaboration between MMC and VUMC explicitly designed to advance clinical, translational and basic research focused on ending health disparities by developing and supporting mutually beneficial partnerships between academic centers and the community. A mixed-methods approach was employed to ascertain how the MVA could leverage its resources to further enhance the mission of the MVTCP. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 MVA stakeholders (2 MMC; 5 VUMC, 3 community partners) to identify opportunities to grow cross-institutional collaborations. Emerging themes were used to develop exploratory questions for faculty-centric focus groups. Focus groups with MMC and VUMC faculty were held to elicit barriers to collaboration and explore possible solutions. A faculty survey was designed and deployed among faculty from all 4 MVTCP institutions from April to December 2022. Results: Themes from semi-structured interviews included limited networking opportunities between institutions, need for greater community engagement, and lack of awareness of faculty development resources, scholarly opportunities, and research funding. Focus group participants (6 MMC; 7 VUMC) recommended solutions that included hosting networking events, newsletters to highlight research and community partners, and developing a resource repository. Faculty respondents to the survey (n=52) indicated their willingness to support cross-institutional capacity building by mentoring students (86.5%), connecting research and clinical colleagues (63.5%), and peer mentorship (57.7%). Faculty requested connections to resources and community organizations (82.7%), support for research and grant development (63.5%), and career development opportunities (50%). Conclusion: This project informed the MVA to actualize the Faculty Affiliate Program (FAP). FAP membership is open to faculty across all MVTCP institutions and has grown to over 75 members. This centralized resource hub facilitates collaborative research and fosters cross-institutional engagement. It is hoped that with support from the FAP, the MVTCP will continue to develop more robust cross-institutional collaborations and community partnerships designed to eliminate cancer disparities. Citation Format: Karen M. Winkfield, Jessica L. Jones, Virginia Fuqua-Meadows, Freneka F. Minter, Calandra G. Whitted, Alecia M. Fair. Leveraging the Meharry-Vanderbilt alliance to develop a faculty affiliate program to expand cross-collaborative research [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A031.

Investigating Factors Affecting the Low Uptake of Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) Membership Among Insurance Professionals in Botswana.

Purpose: This study investigates the factors contributing to the low uptake of Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) membership among insurance professionals in Botswana. The goal is to comprehend this phenomenon and provide insights into improving membership rates.
 Design / Methodology / Approach: A questionnaire-based survey targeting insurance professionals, students, and lecturers was employed. This approach aimed to gather comprehensive perspectives on membership uptake and related factors. The survey identified primary influences on low membership uptake, including lack of awareness, high fees, perceived limited value, and inadequate networking opportunities. The study explored the importance of membership, benefits, barriers, and suggestions for boosting participation.
 Findings: The study reveals crucial factors contributing to low IISA membership rates. Challenges include insufficient awareness of benefits, high fees deterring potential members, perceived value gaps, and limited networking prospects. These insights provide a holistic understanding of obstacles faced by insurance professionals in joining IISA. The research underscores the significance of professional organization membership for networking, skill enhancement, and career growth. However, financial, and perceptual barriers hinder potential members from joining.

Encounter Count and Interaction Time-Based Routing Protocol for Opportunistic Networks

Encounter Count and Interaction Time-Based Routing Protocol for Opportunistic Networks

Addressing the Gender Gap in Academic Success: A History of the University of North Carolina Association of Professional Women in the Medical Sciences.

Despite efforts at many institutions, nationally, women still lag behind their male counterparts in leadership, promotion, and seniority. In this paper, we describe the efforts to improve the environment for women faculty at one large academic medical centerthrough the creation of an Association of Professional Women in Medical Sciences. Over the years, the group has helped influence policies that directly affect women faculty, provided high-yield programming on topics related to women's success, and created interprofessional networking opportunities for women faculty. We describe the challenges and successes of this group to serve as a model and inspiration for other institutions.

CR-5: Resource optimization opportunistic network routing algorithm based on node dynamic attributes

The opportunistic network routing algorithms are the core technology of intermittent communication of mobile nodes in opportunistic networks. However, the existing researches on opportunistic network routing algorithms mainly focus on how to improve the message delivery ratio and reduce the route overhead ratio, and often neglect managing energy consumption and cache usage of node. This results in problems such as communication chain easy to interruption and congestion control instability in opportunity networks. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes CR-5: resource optimization opportunistic network routing algorithm based on node dynamic attributes. CR-5 comprehensively considers node dynamic attributes such as historical encounter information, resource availability, and node social input degree, defines node communication relay degree as the basis for selecting relay nodes, and realizes node energy balance and cache optimization. CR-5 tends to choose relay nodes with strong communication ability, which solves the problem of communication chain easy to interruption to some extent. CR-5 also enhances the resource management and message processing ability of nodes through energy balance and cache optimization, reduces the phenomenon that some nodes process too many messages, which solves the problem of congestion control instability to some extent. Simulation results show that in opportunistic networks with low node initial cache, the CR-5 algorithm greatly improves the message delivery ratio and the node average remaining energy, and significantly reduces the route overhead ratio.

Utilizing blockchains in opportunistic networks for integrity and confidentiality

Opportunistic networks (OppNets) are usually a set of smart, wearable, and portable devices or entities with mobility that connect wirelessly without requiring infrastructure. Such a network is of great importance in data transmission, particularly in incidents and disasters, whether man-made or natural. However, message integrity and confidentiality are of concern when dealing with vital and physiological data transmission under strict privacy regulations. In this work, we propose a structure to classify messages based on their priority in different queues. Furthermore, due to the decentralized architecture of OppNets, we propose a blockchain-based structure for providing security for high-priority messages. It contains three sequences of functional blocks with a light and simplified implementation that make it suitable for battery-powered wearable devices that are limited in energy consumption and computational units. The simulation results show that by increasing the number of nodes in the network, the average of the changes in block sizes is neglectable, which addresses the computation bottleneck. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of the proposed structure in terms of message delivery and network overhead compared with the Epidemic and Prophet routing algorithms. These results indicate advancing the overall performance of the proposed algorithm.

Developing a faculty support program for fostering enriching undergraduate laboratory experiences under limited resource conditions.

Meaningful pedagogical reform requires good faculty training and support programs. Such support is particularly valuable when colleges and universities are trying to bring research and inquiry into the laboratory curricula under resource-limited conditions. In this situation, it may help to extend the scope of the faculty support program to include training for practicing experimental techniques, sustainable networking opportunities, and a space to learn about pedagogical reforms. From this perspective, we share our experience about building a faculty development program for public college teachers who teach undergraduate biology in India. Though we designed the program for low-resource settings, the experiments curated could very well represent core biological concepts typically identified by the international community. The activities and overall design of the program can be useful for initiating pedagogical reform in any college/university where the traditional approach to biology laboratory instruction predominates, and high-end research is not easy to access.

Nonprofit Disaster Response and Climate Change: Who Responds? Who Plans?

Abstract As weather disasters intensify under the impacts of climate change, an important public policy question is whether the kinds of organizations most likely to provide disaster relief are themselves planning for climate change. A statewide Indiana survey of the leaders of a wide variety of community “social safety net” organizations (N = 467) provides rich descriptive data to understand the realities of local disaster planning as it relates to climate change. Our findings support federal disaster policy in showing first that most of these charities have been or expect to be involved in local disaster relief, either as a primary or secondary mission focus. Charities identifying as primarily disaster responders are much more likely to belong to local emergency planning networks and slightly more likely to plan for emergencies. However, most charity leaders do not acknowledge climate change’s human origins and have not discussed climate change at the board level, with this position strongly related to their understanding of climate change’s potential impact on the communities they serve. And most have not taken some risk mitigation steps. We conclude that the Federal Emergency Management Authority’s national disaster response policy, which relies on the readiness of nonprofits to fill in service roles, does not account for the potential unpreparedness of nonprofits themselves. Policymakers should expand their “whole-community” (three-sector) approach to reinforce local network opportunities as forums for exchanging experience and knowledge, including an explicit linkage between the communication of the science of climate change and emergency planning.

Characterization of Quantum Frequency Processors

Frequency-bin qubits possess unique synergies with wavelength-multiplexed lightwave communications, suggesting valuable opportunities for quantum networking with the existing fiber-optic infrastructure. Although the coherent manipulation of frequency-bin states requires highly controllable multi-spectral-mode interference, the quantum frequency processor (QFP) provides a scalable path for gate synthesis leveraging standard telecom components. Here we summarize the state of the art in experimental QFP characterization. Distinguishing between physically motivated “open box” approaches that treat the QFP as a multiport interferometer, and “black box” approaches that view the QFP as a general quantum operation, we highlight the assumptions and results of multiple techniques, including quantum process tomography of a tunable beamsplitter—to our knowledge the first full process tomography of any frequency-bin operation. Our findings should inform future characterization efforts as the QFP increasingly moves beyond proof-of-principle tabletop demonstrations toward integrated devices and deployed quantum networking experiments.

Quantifying emissions and enhancing inclusivity: Insights from ASCO attendance data.

442 Background: In-person conference attendance contributes significantly to a professional’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, estimating conference emissions has often relied on assumptions about attendee numbers and travel, especially for investigations of medical conferences. This project aims to address these limitations by utilizing actual attendance data from the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) Annual Meetings. The objectives of this project are to establish a quantitative baseline of conference-associated emissions for different formats (in-person, virtual, and hybrid) and simulate changes to conference parameters with evaluation of associated emissions to provide recommendations for sustainable changes. Methods: Data was provided by ASCO including the number of attendees, zip codes of origin, and attendance method (in-person versus virtual) for their 2019-2022 Annual Meetings. Using a variety of conservative assumptions, emissions were calculated with consideration of the following factors: travel versus virtual attendance, conference space utilization, hotel stays, and electricity. The results were stratified by country, attendance method, and year, and differences in emissions were assessed with t-tests. Simulations were conducted to evaluate the impact of different conference sizes, locations, and formats on emissions. Results: The highest estimated GHG emissions were associated with the in-person 2019 conference, totaling 37,251 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. While international attendees accounted for the largest proportion of emissions (>50%) in all years, optimizing conference locations models only reduced emissions by 3%. However, simulations of hub-and-spoke models showed the potential for larger decreases of up to 86%, and various hybrid models offered similar emission savings. Furthermore, hybrid conferences in 2020 and 2021 demonstrated increased attendee diversity with a higher percentage of international attendees compared to the in-person 2019 conference (44% international attendance in 2019 versus 53% in 2020 and 54% in 2021). Conclusions: This study not only quantifies the emissions impact of alternative conference formats but also highlights the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations in reducing emissions. While travel remains a significant contributor to conference emissions, conference models focusing solely on location optimization were not as effective as hybrid models in reducing emissions. Hybrid models may present an opportunity to effectively mitigate GHG emissions while maintaining networking opportunities and cultivating inclusivity for attendees from diverse backgrounds.

Representation in Health Professions Education: Striving for an Inclusive Health Professions Education Community.

Author representation and inclusivity in health professions education (HPE) scholarship is receiving increasing attention in academic medicine, with multiple articles calling for greater equity related to gender, geographic, and institutional affiliations. Despite journal efforts to seek diversity, authors from high-income English-speaking countries are the most highly represented in HPE scholarship. Less attention, however, has been focused on the openness of medical education scholars, themselves, to engaging in international collaborations with authors and institutions from low-and-middle income countries. This eye-opener is inspired by the authors' personal experiences in HPE scholarship from an international medical educator perspective and advocates for the creation of an open and inclusive multinational medical education community. We offer suggestions that can help create opportunities for networking, collaboration, and promoting a sense of belonging among HPE scholars worldwide. As researchers, journal editors and associate editors, and faculty in HPE programs, we can work together to create a welcoming and accommodating environment that embraces non-dominant voices and perspectives, with the ultimate goal of achieving diversity and equity in HPE scholarship.

Role Of Institution In Field Of Entrepreneurial Development

Role Of Institution In The Field Of Entrepreneurial Development Abstract:- Institutions play a crucial role in the field of entrepreneurial development by providing a supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurs to thrive and succeed. This abstract will highlight the key roles institutions play in fostering entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial development institutions, such as business incubators, accelerators, universities, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, act as catalysts in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. They provide various resources, guidance, and support to aspiring entrepreneurs, startup companies, and small businesses. Firstly, institutions offer education and training programs to enhance entrepreneurial skills and knowledge. They provide workshops, courses, and mentoring opportunities to equip individuals with the necessary business acumen, management techniques, and industry-specific expertise. These educational initiatives help entrepreneurs understand market dynamics, develop viable business models, and improve their chances of success. Secondly, institutions facilitate access to funding and financial resources. They connect entrepreneurs with potential investors, venture capitalists, and angel investors who are willing to provide capital to fuel business growth. Institutions may also offer grants, loans, or equity-based financing options to support entrepreneurs in their early stages when traditional funding may be challenging to obtain. By bridging the financial gap, institutions help entrepreneurs turn their innovative ideas into viable business ventures. Furthermore, institutions provide networking and collaboration opportunities. They organize networking events, conferences, and forums where entrepreneurs can connect with like-minded individuals, industry experts, and potential business partners. These platforms enable entrepreneurs to exchange ideas, share experiences, and forge valuable partnerships that can contribute to their business success. Institutions also play a crucial role in facilitating access to markets. They provide entrepreneurs with market intelligence, research, and guidance on market entry strategies. Additionally, they help entrepreneurs navigate regulatory frameworks, intellectual property rights, and other legal aspects, reducing barriers to market entry and facilitating business growth. Moreover, institutions foster a culture of innovation and risk-taking. They create an environment that encourages entrepreneurship, celebrates entrepreneurial success, and provides support during setbacks. Institutions promote an entrepreneurial mindset by organizing competitions, awards, and recognition programs that motivate individuals to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. In summary, institutions in the field of entrepreneurial development play a multifaceted role in supporting and nurturing entrepreneurial ventures. They provide education, training, funding, networking, market access, and a conducive environment for entrepreneurs to thrive. By offering comprehensive support, institutions contribute to the growth of innovative startups, job creation, economic development, and societal progress.

A Novel Approach to Addiction Medicine Education for Undergraduate Medical Students

A virtual addiction medicine elective was developed using interactive multimedia modules, active learning strategies, and patient-based cases. Student had opportunities for professional networking and interacting with physicians and patients. The elective was successful in boosting Year-1 medical students’ confidence to screen, manage, and treat patients with substance abuse disorder.

Faculty Professional Development in Private Colleges: Strategies for Enhancing Teaching and Research

This study examines the various approaches utilised in faculty professional development programmes within private institutions, specifically targeting the improvement of teaching and research skills. The multidimensional approach encompasses a series of seminars that address various aspects of teaching approaches, evaluation strategies, and technological integration. Engaging in conferences offers opportunities for professional networking and enables individuals to stay updated on the latest advancements within their respective academic fields. The establishment of mentorship relationships between seasoned and inexperienced faculty members facilitates the exchange of knowledge and the strengthening of skills. Financial assistance plays a pivotal role in stimulating faculty involvement in significant research endeavours, thereby making valuable contributions to the scholarly community. Finally, the promotion of collaboration, both internally and externally, inside the institution fosters an environment conducive to the development of collective knowledge and the utilisation of diverse techniques. This analysis emphasises the essential significance of faculty development in private schools, guaranteeing that educators possess the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in their teaching practises and make substantial contributions to the progress of research within their respective academic fields. The main aim of the research is to explore &analyse the strategies of faculty professional development (FPD) in private colleges for enhancing teaching and research.

Reimagining Leadership in Open Education: Networking to Promote Social Justice and Systemic Change

Challenging traditional notions of leadership, and leveraging non-hierarchical learning structures, the Regional Leaders of Open Education Network (RLOE) was created to bring together leaders from a broad diversity of institutions in the U.S. and Canada to build strategic plans for open education that especially support underserved and underrepresented students. All members of the network, including an advisory team, collaborators, student mentors and cohort participants were engaged in a multi-directional learning program over two years (2021-2022) that included a variety of synchronous and asynchronous online engagement opportunities, as well as the opportunity to attend an in-person summit. Analyses of surveys and reports completed by network participants indicated that RLOE was successful in building community and in providing vital networking opportunities that supported them to design and begin to implement open education strategic plans that included initiatives in professional development, forming partnerships, integrating DEI as well as many other goals and accomplishments. Cohort participants indicated statistically significant gains in 1) developing and leveraging their leadership skills to serve marginalized and underrepresented students, 2) understanding how OE practices can empower all students, especially marginalized students, and 3) how OER can be used to specifically support underrepresented and underserved groups. In addition, 90% of cohort participants indicated that the RLOE Network helped them to center principles of diversity, equity and inclusion into their open educational work.

Trailblazers in cancer research: the next generation - the British Association of Cancer Research early-career conference.

The inaugural 'British Association of Cancer Research (BACR) Early Career Conference, Trailblazers in Cancer Research 2023', was a 2-day meeting held in Manchester, UK. Recognising the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to early-career researchers (ECRs), the BACR executive committee organised an in-person conference to address the lack of network and training opportunities during this time. The conference brought together PhD students and post-doctoral researchers from across the UK and beyond, who shared their outstanding contributions to cancer research. The meeting incorporated several cutting-edge cancer themes, including 'Cancer Cell Signalling and The Tumour Microenvironment'; 'Emerging Approaches in Cancer Treatment'; 'Cancer Omics and Lifestyle', and 'Nutrition and Cancer'. Alongside showcasing world-class cancer research, the meeting included a career-focused session which allowed industrial and non-academic speakers to provide vital insight into alternative career paths aside from the familiar 'academic' route. Importantly, the conference also introduced delegates to Patient Public Involvement in cancer research, an area of limited experience for many. Overall, the BACR Trailblazers Conference was hugely successful and presented an excellent platform for collaboration and networking among ECRs in cancer research.

Beyond the individual: An improved telecom fraud detection approach based on latent synergy graph learning

The development of telecom technology not only facilitates social interactions but also inevitably provides the breeding ground for telecom fraud crimes. However, telecom fraud detection is a challenging task as fraudsters tend to commit co-fraud and disguise themselves within the mass of benign ones. Previous approaches work by unearthing differences in calling sequential patterns between independent fraudsters, but they may ignore synergic fraud patterns and oversimplify fraudulent behaviors. Fortunately, graph-like data formed by traceable telecom interaction provides opportunities for graph neural network (GNN)-based telecom fraud detection methods. Therefore, we develop a latent synergy graph (LSG) learning-based telecom fraud detector, named LSG-FD, to model both sequential and interactive fraudulent behaviors. Specifically, LSG-FD introduces (1) a multi-view LSG extractor to reconstruct synergy relationship-oriented graphs from the meta-interaction graph based on second-order proximity assumption; (2) an LSTM-based calling behavior encoder to capture the sequential patterns from the perspective of local individuals; (3) a dual-channel based graph learning module to alleviate the disassortativity issue (caused by the camouflages of fraudsters) by incorporating the dual-channel frequency filters and the learnable controller to adaptively aggregate high- and low-frequency information from their neighbors; (4) an imbalance-resistant model trainer to remedy the graph imbalance issue by developing a label-aware sampler. Experiment results on the telecom fraud dataset and another two widely used fraud datasets have verified the effectiveness of our model.

Retracted: Adaptive Clustering Algorithm for IIoT Based Mobile Opportunistic Networks

Retracted: Adaptive Clustering Algorithm for IIoT Based Mobile Opportunistic Networks

Networking With Industry Partners, Experiential Learning, and Teamwork: Engaging and Preparing Students Across Modalities

This case study assesses a course re-designed to scaffold a semester-long networking opportunity and experiential learning project. The course occurred online twice using Microsoft Teams in the spring and fall of 2021 and later in person once in the spring of 2023. I present quantitative student course evaluation data from all three semesters and compare them to the department, school, and university. I also address open comments from students, pedagogy, media coverage, and our fashion industry partner's perspective. Findings suggest that the course design was successful across modalities. Students rated the course highly compared to others on campus, even while online, and ratings improved over time. Student comments praised the course for offering valuable career preparation. Our industry partner also derived professional and personal value by interacting with and mentoring students. The case study concludes by encouraging educators to implement experiential learning in any modality, offering guidance, and addressing obstacles.