Contact Opportunities Research Articles

Offloading Elastic Transfers to Opportunistic Vehicular Networks Based on Imperfect Trajectory Prediction

Due to the high cost of cellular networks, vehicle users would like to offload elastic traffic through vehicular networks as much as possible. This demand prompts researchers to consider how to make the vehicular network system achieve better performance for requests coming online, such as maximizing throughput. The traffic in vehicular networks is transferred through opportunistic contacts between vehicles and infrastructures. When making scheduling decisions, the scheduler must be aware of vehicles’ future trajectories. Vehicles’ future trajectories are usually predicted by trajectory prediction algorithms when users are unwilling to report their future trips. Unfortunately, no trajectory prediction algorithm can be completely accurate, and these inaccurate prediction results will degrade the throughput achieved by scheduling algorithms. In this paper, we focus on reducing the negative impact of inaccurate predictions. Specifically, we measure two data-driven trajectory prediction algorithms that have been widely used for trajectory predictions and understand the characteristics of the accuracy of predicted contacts. Based on the enlightenment from the measurement, we design a system, i.e., i-Offload, to offload elastic traffic under imperfect trajectory predictions. The experimental results show that our system has good throughput and high scheduling efficiency even under imperfect trajectory predictions. Compared with existing scheduling algorithms, our method improves the throughput by about one time.

Mediating effects of ageism and knowledge on the relationship between contact with older adults and attitudes toward older adults' sexuality among nursing students

BackgroundHealthcare professionals often ignore sexuality in aging and avoid discussing related topics, especially in China. Nursing students, as future professionals, can address the sexuality of older adults encountered in clinical practice by establishing positive attitudes toward aging sexuality. Previous studies have demonstrated that contact has positive impacts on nursing students' attitudes toward aging sexuality. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying this relationship between contact and attitudes. ObjectivesTo explore the mediating effects of ageism and knowledge on the relationship between contact and nursing students' attitudes toward aging sexuality. DesignThis was a cross-sectional study. SettingsThe study was conducted at a nursing school in Hefei city, China. Participants and methods614 nursing students completed online-administered questionnaires measuring the level of contact with older adults, ageism, knowledge, and attitudes toward aging sexuality. Data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. ResultsThe mean scores for knowledge and attitudes toward aging sexuality were 85.70 (SD = 16.39) and 104.91 (SD = 14.88), respectively. Overall, our findings confirmed that these hypotheses were accepted. Ageism (β = −0.079, P = 0.007) and knowledge (β = −0.070, P < 0.001) mediated the relationship between contact and attitude. ConclusionGiven the mediating role of ageism and knowledge in the relationship between contact and attitude, reducing ageism and enhancing knowledge are vital to changing students' attitudes, including integrating ageism and aging sexuality knowledge learning into the nursing curriculum and creating opportunities for contact with older adults. The frequency and quality of contact between nursing students and older adults can be improved by rationalizing the internship duration, tasks, and assessment objectives of placements on geriatric wards and by the role of clinical faculty role models in cultivating positive attitudes toward aging sexuality.

Women’s voice on changes in childbirth care practices: a qualitative approach to women’s experiences in Brazilian private hospitals participating in the Adequate Childbirth Project

BackgroundIn Brazil, childbirth practices are strongly marked by surgical events and particularly in the private sector cesarean sections reach rates above 80%. The National Supplementary Health Agency proposed the Adequate Childbirth Project (PPA), a quality improvement project developed at Brazilian hospitals with the aim of changing the current model of childbirth care and reducing unnecessary cesarean sections. The objective of this study is to assess how the participation of women in the process of improving quality childbirth care occurred in two hospitals participating in the PPA.MethodQualitative study, based on interviews with 102 women attended at two hospitals that took part in the first and second stages of the “Healthy Birth”, an evaluative hospital-based research, conducted in 2017–2018, that assessed the degree of implementation and the effects of PPA. After thematic content analysis, supported by MaxQda software, three categories emerged: (1) how women gathered knowledge about the PPA, (2) how women perceived it, and (3) which are their suggestions for the PPA improvement.ResultsThe PPA was unknown to most women before delivery. A polysemy of terms, including adequate childbirth, promotes recognition of the “new” model of care. Visits to the maternity hospital and antenatal care groups for pregnant women are opportunities for contacts that change the perception of what childbirth can be. Women have expectations of a relationship with maternity that is not limited to the moment of delivery. The listening channels established between hospitals and women are fragile and not systematized. By increasing the supply of listening spaces, one can also increase the request to leave their suggestions and contributions, and thus gain more allies in improving the project. Women are not yet included as PPA agents and their voices are silenced.ConclusionsWomen’s participation to improve childbirth care is relevant and necessary. The women’s voice in the PPA is still incipient, and maternity hospitals and health plan operators should create strategies to insert and engage them. Women’s voices should be listened to not only during but also before and after childbirth.

Problems of researching the history of exile of Ukrainians and of the Baltic peoples in the USSR

This study investigated the conditions of exile and interaction between Ukrainian and Baltic prisoners in Soviet camps in the post-war period. The scientific relevance of the subject lies in the investigation of the cooperation of political prisoners of diverse national groups, which led to the camp uprisings of 1953-1954. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the conditions of exile and the opportunities for contacts between Ukrainian and Baltic prisoners in the context of protest formation using evidence from the camp departments of Vorkuta, specifically Rechlag. To fulfil this purpose, the methods of comparative and retrospective analysis, historical and psychological reconstruction were used. The study identified common and distinctive features inherent in the Vorkuta camps. It was found that the basis for interaction between Ukrainian and Baltic prisoners was their common situation and attempts to improve living conditions in the camp. Therewith, it was stated that the same cultural and educational level and participation in the anti-Soviet resistance improved the establishment of interethnic contacts. The socio-psychological characteristics of Ukrainian and Baltic prisoners of the postwar era distinguished them from others. It was found that the unification into national groups was facilitated by the self-identification of prisoners as captives with a national worldview and experience that opposed Soviet ideology. The main goal was to improve the conditions and release prisoners from places of captivity, and active attempts to achieve this came after Stalin’s death. It was proved that political uncertainty and chaotic actions of the camp administration became a catalyst for uprisings that accelerated the transformation of places of captivity. A key role in organising the protests belonged to strike committees representing groups of prisoners on ethnic grounds. Specifically, Ukrainian, and Baltic prisoners took an active part in them. This shows the place and role of these nations in the camp uprisings. The practical significance of this study lies in highlighting the little-studied issue of the ways in which Ukrainian and Baltic political prisoners interacted and the impact of these contacts on the fight against the Soviet repressive apparatus in prison

Hospital Website as an Element of Digital Transformation – Comparative Analysis of 2014, 2018 and 2022

Health care systems operate on the verge of capacities of personnel, processes and infrastructure, and the market is demanding, therefore healthcare organizations need digital transformation. To manage effectively crucial is the implementation of electronic communication between healthcare entities and patients. This study aims to analyze changes in public hospitals’ web-based communication – the basic communication channel nowadays. The idea is to answer questions relating to the level and quality of e-communication, and to point out differences and trends in that field. The analysis covered the content of the websites of Szczecin-based hospitals in 2014, 2018 and 2022 to verify hypothesis their web-based communication evolves. The desk research was carried out in the form of expert method based on the criteria important from the patient's point of view (identification issues, readability, usefulness of information, contact opportunities and modern e-communication). According to the research, the level of web-based communication differs significantly and evolves. It is higher than in the past, but not satisfactory. The best results concern the issue of hospitals’ identification and communication opportunities, while modern e-communication is poor. A general conclusion is recommendation for hospitals to improve web-based communication – first of all available two-way communication tools should be implemented (especially well-developed appointment registration, prescriptions ordering or medical records gaining).

“Rede hit sofft”: John Audelay's Practice of Care

“Rede hit sofft”: John Audelay's Practice of Care

Assessment of mother and child protection card utility in a rural block of Odisha

Background: Mother and Child Protection card was introduced for accelerating reduction in maternal, neonatal, and infant mortality and child under-nutrition & meant to be used by both beneficiaries and health care providers. It is a folding pictorial tool designed to assist mothers' understanding and monitor individual progress of maternal and child health and also enable the large networks of ASHAs, AWWs, and ANMs to converge their efforts and utilize the critical contact opportunities more effectively. Objective: To assess the completeness of information in MCP card filled by the AWW, ANM, and Beneficiary. Material and Methods: Twelve villages in mendhasal block of Khurdha district were selected for this study by multistage stratified random sampling method. MCP cards of Pregnant women from the second trimester onwards and Mothers of children 0-2 years of age were assessed for completeness using a Checklist. Results: A total of 34 and 46 items were checked for completeness in the MCP cards of Antenatal and post-natal women. The median entries found to be complete in Antenatal and Post-natal women were 34 and 26. Recording information on demographic details and antenatal care details was high but there was poor maintenance of other records like post-natal care, immunization, and growth chart. It was also found that beneficiaries are not marking the circles in the tablets consumption part. Conclusion: The study reported a gap in the maintenance of records in the Mother & Child Protection Card. Training for both the health care providers and mothers is needed for adequate use of the MCP card.

Study on Multi-Factor Optimization and Application for Water Mist of a Wetting Dust Suppressant.

Aiming at the problem of low efficiency of capturing respirable and hydrophobic dust in water mist dust removal technology, a chemical dust suppression method is adopted. Based on the research idea of improving the wetting efficiency of water mist, prolonging the droplet retention time, and improving the contact opportunity with dust, the experiments of dust sedimentation time, solution spreading area, and water loss rate are selected to evaluate the wetting efficiency and anti-evaporation performance of dust suppression water mist. Considering the special double-chain structure of the Gemini surfactant and its high wettability, it is preferred as the main dust suppression component. Based on the indoor experimental data, the optimized formula of the composite wet water mist dust suppressant was obtained by CCD-RSM(central composite design-response surface methodology). The comparison of indoor experimental data shows that the sedimentation time of the dust sample in the water mist dust suppressant is 5.0 times faster than that of pure water, the spreading area of the dust suppressant solution is 1.8 times that of pure water, and the water loss rate of the dust sample treated by the dust suppressant is 70% that of pure water. The field investigation results show that compared with pure water mist, the dust removal rates of the Gemini wetting dust suppressant for respirable dust and total dust are 90.3 and 71.1%, respectively, which are 10.5 and 22.5% higher than that of pure water mist. It can be proved that improving the wetting efficiency and anti-evaporation performance of spray mist will increase the dust removal efficiency.

Neighbourliness and Situational Factors: Explaining Neighbour Behaviour in Attacks and Rescues of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 and Muslims in Ahmedabad in 2002

Studies find a direct association of collective violence with relational distance: lower the relational distance, lower the violence. Where people live as neighbours, spatial proximity provides more opportunity for contact. However, perpetrators of mass violence are often neighbours who had previously coexisted with their victims in apparent harmony. Neighbour-on-neighbour violence is a social violation: it shakes our confidence in the collective values of ‘neighbourliness’ and the strength of prior relations. In two state-orchestrated pogroms in India – against Sikhs in 1984 and Muslims in 2002 – the nature of prior neighbour relationships is delineated to identify why some neighbours participated in attacks, others in rescues. A qualitative analysis of 50 survivor affidavits and 41 in-depth interviews enabled reconstructing the texture of these relationships. Neighbourliness and situational factors (timing of attacks; built environment) provided a more nuanced understanding of behaviour. For democratic polities that authorise pogroms, findings challenge existing knowledge on contact and violence.

A Controller-Driven Approach for Opportunistic Networking

Opportunistic networks (OppNets) leverage opportunistic contacts to flow data across an infrastructure-free network. As of yet, OppNets’ performance depends on applying the most suitable forwarding strategy based on the OppNet typology. On the other hand, software-defined networking (SDN) is a paradigm for wired networks that decouples the control and data planes. The control plane oversees the network to configure the data plane optimally. Our proposal uses SDN-like controllers to build a partial overview of the opportunistic network. The forwarding strategy uses this context information to achieve better network performance. As a use case of our proposal, in the context of an OppNet quota-based forwarding algorithm, we present a controller-driven architecture to tackle the congestion problem. Particularly, the controller-driven architecture uses the context information on the congestion of the network to dynamically determine the message replication limit used by the forwarding algorithm. A simulation based on real and synthetic mobility traces shows that using context information provided by the controller to configure the forwarding protocol increments the delivery ratio and keeps a good latency average and a low overhead compared with the baseline forwarding protocols based on message replication. These results strengthen the benefits of using supervised context information in the forwarding strategy in OppNets.

With COVID Comes Complexity: Assessing the Implementation of Family Visitation Programs in Long-Term Care.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic visitor restrictions to long-term care facilities have demonstrated that eliminating opportunities for family-resident contact has devastating consequences for residents' quality of life. Our study aimed to understand how public health directives to support family visitations during the pandemic were navigated, managed, and implemented by staff. Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, we conducted video/telephone interviews with 54 direct care and implementation staff in six long-term care homes in two Canadian provinces to assess implementation barriers and facilitators of visitation programs. Equity and inclusion issues were examined in the program's implementation. Despite similar public health directives, implementation varied by facility, largely influenced by the existing culture and processes of the facility and the staff understanding of the program; differences resulted in how designated family members were chosen and restrictions around visitations (e.g., scheduling and location). Facilitators of implementation were good communication networks, leadership, and intentional planning to develop the visitor designation processes. However, the lack of consultation with direct care staff led to logistical challenges around visitation and ignited conflict around visitation rules and procedures. Insights into the complexities of implementing family visitation programs during a pandemic are discussed, and opportunities for improvement are identified. Our results reveal the importance of proactively including direct care staff and family in planning for future outbreaks.

Development of ownership of patient care during clerkship.

Ownership of patient care is a concept that embodies a number of professionalism attributes and involves a feeling of strong commitment and responsibility towards patient care. Little is known about how the embodiment of this concept develops in the earliest stages of clinical training. The goal of this qualitative study is to explore the development of ownership of patient care in clerkship. Using qualitative descriptive methodology, we conducted twelve one-on-one in-depth semi-structured interviews with final-year medical students at one university. Each participant was asked to describe their understanding and beliefs with regards to ownership of patient care and discuss how they acquired these mental models during clerkship, with emphasis on enabling factors. Data were inductively analyzed using qualitative descriptive methodology and with professional identity formation as the sensitizing theoretical framework. Ownership of patient care develops in students through a process of professional socialization that includes enabling factors such as role modelling, student self-assessment, learning environment, healthcare and curriculum structures, attitudes of and treatment by others, and growing competence. The resulting ownership of patient care is manifested as understanding patients' needs and values, engaging patients in their care, and maintaining a strong sense of accountability for patients' outcome. An understanding of how ownership of patient care develops in early medical training and the associated enabling factors can inform strategies aimed at optimizing this process, such as designing curricula with more opportunities for longitudinal patient contact and fostering a supportive learning environment with positive role modelling, clear attribution of responsibilities, and purposefully granted autonomy.

What they don’t know won’t hurt them? Linking children’s knowledge of parental incarceration to child well-being during reentry

BackgroundMass incarceration in the United States has resulted in a significant number of children experiencing parental incarceration, an experience that is tied to adverse child health. Providing children with developmentally appropriate information about parental incarceration has been found to contribute to improved well-being and attachment during incarceration; however, no work has examined how this information assists children after parents are released. This study aims to fill this gap by examining associations between children’s knowledge of parental incarceration and their socio-emotional well-being both during parents’ imprisonment and 6-months post-release. MethodsUsing data from 299 parents enrolled in a longitudinal project, this study assessed how what children were told about their parent’s incarceration influenced their internalizing and externalizing behaviors, as well as other behavioral health symptoms, across waves. ResultsFindings indicate that children were more likely to be given complete information about their parent’s incarceration when they were older, White, had incarcerated mothers (compared to fathers), and lived with the parent before they went to prison. There were fewer post-release behavior problems for younger children and boys when they were explicitly informed about their parent’s incarceration. ConclusionHeterogeneity in children’s outcomes was found both during and after parental incarceration dependent upon what they were told about the imprisonment, finding the most protective evidence for younger boys. Findings call for additional strategies to support families in having conversations about parental incarceration, expand contact opportunities, and offer family-focused reentry programming to help children with incarcerated parents thrive.

От мотивации к инвестированию: изменение тренда образовательной языковой политики

The article discusses changes in the trend of educational language policy under the influence of the change in the general paradigm of language policy from ethno-cultural to national-functional. The desire to learn second or foreign languages is seen not as a result of motivation, but as a result of investment, assuming that the learner has complex, multiple identities that change in time and space and are reproduced in social interaction. Today, the concepts of identity and investment are basic in the theory of language learning and teaching. In the context of globalization, new modes of production and socialization, the compression of time and space are shaping identities, loyalty and citizenship in a new way. The digital world presents more and more opportunities for contact with the whole world and this has a strong influence on identity. Students roam freely in the digital space, and their ability to identify and analyze systemic trends determines their willingness to invest in a particular language. The modern model, which takes into account the constant change of identities, places investing in the zone of intersection of the concepts of identity, human capital and ideology. The choice, promotion and protection of languages is determined by the mechanisms of pride and profit. The study of certain languages can serve instrumental purposes and provide material advantages, provide a sense of pride in belonging to a particular nation, give legitimacy to the discourses and forms of expression supported by this imaginary community. For example, learning lingua franca allows students to think about other forms of national identity, such as global citizenship. Identity is always a battlefield in which the habitus and desires of learners are constantly at war with dominant ideologies and alternative futures. During periods of political and ideological conflict, the problem of the existence of hybrid or cosmopolitan identities is exacerbated and can have a serious impact on national unity and territorial integrity. All these factors should be taken into account when forming a nationally oriented educational language policy and be included in the new concept of education in Russia.

Parental experience of an early developmental surveillance programme for autism within Australian general practice: a qualitative study

ObjectivesImplementing support and services early in the life course has been shown to promote positive developmental outcomes for children at high likelihood of developmental conditions including autism. This study examined...

Гражданское участие как фактор современного этапа административной реформы в российских регионах

The article analyzes the opportunities for civic participation to affect the regional dynamics of measures to improve public administration in 2016–2019. Based on the provisions of the concepts of authoritarian responsiveness and regional political regimes, the author suggests that the civic participation could be a significant factor of a policy process in regions highly dependent on the federal center (as an ally of federal authorities interested in reform’s success); in regions with less transparent bureaucracies (due to higher effectiveness of informal interactions with the state in non-democracies); and in regions with extreme levels of political competition (with diverse impact). As a result of a cross-regional statistical analysis of panel data, the author draws a conclusion that in the case of the current stage of the Russian administrative reform, civic participation was a significant factor of the policy results per se, since it was directly related to the essence of the policy; and in the regions with less transparent bureaucracies, where there were more opportunities for informal contacts. In turn, the expectation that the civic participation can be used as an ally by federal authorities was not supported by the empirical results&nbsp;–&nbsp;the interaction effect between levels of dependency and civic participation was not significant while the dependency on the center was significant factor alone. The hypothesis about role of political competition leading to significance of civic participation also was not supported. This signifies that political competition cannot lead to the elites responsiveness in non-democracies.

Better Adaptive Malicious Users Detection Algorithm in Human Contact Networks

A human contact network (HCN) consists of individuals moving around and interacting with each other. In HCN, it is essential to detect malicious users who break the data delivery through terminating the data delivery or tampering with the data. Since malicious users will pay more but gain less when breaking the data delivery of opportunistic contacts, we focus on the non-opportunistic contacts that occur more frequently and stably. It is observed that people contact with each other more frequently if they have more social features in common. In this paper, we build up topology structure for HCN based on social features, and propose a graph theoretical comparison detection model to perform malicious users detection. Then we present an adaptive detection scheme based on Hamiltonian cycle decomposition. Also, we define comparison-0-string and comparison-1-string to improve the detection efficiency. Moreover, we perform scenario simulations on real data to realize the detected process of malicious users. Experiments show that, when the number of malicious users is bounded by the dimension of HCN, our scheme has a detection rate of 100% with both false positive rate and false negative rate being 0%, and the running cost is also very low when compared to baseline approaches. When the number of malicious users exceeds the bound, the detection rate of our scheme decreases slowly, while the false positive rate and false negative rate increase slowly, but they are still better than the baseline approaches.

Improving the delivery ratio in vehicular delay‐tolerant network using customized binary particle swarm optimization‐based optimized throwbox deployment

SummaryVehicular delay tolerant networks (VDTNs) suffer due to insufficient connection opportunities in sparse infrastructure. The sparsity of the network results in poor delivery ratio (DR). Deployment of additional small nodes named throwbox increases the contact opportunities, resulting in improved performance in terms of DR. However, randomly deployed throwboxes do not provide optimum results. Therefore, this article proposes the throwbox deployment as an optimization problem. Customized binary particle swarm optimization‐based optimization method is employed to solve the problem. With the objective of maximizing the DR, the method optimize the placement of ‐throwboxes in the network. The performance of the proposed methods is tested and compared by simulating a VDTN model in opportunistic network environment simulator. The optimization framework was implemented in Matlab. Exhaustive experiments were carried out by varying the number of throwboxes (). A statistical comparison of the results with the existing throwbox deployment methods validates the effectiveness of the proposed optimization‐based approach. The article also presents an analysis for choice of value of for a desired network performance.

Rotary-angle 3D printing multilayer membrane dead-end filtration for rapid and highly efficient water treatment

Polluted water caused by antibiotics leads to serious risks to human health and ecosystem. Rapidly and efficiently treating antibiotic pollutions to make it safe is urgently needed for environmental protection and public health. Herein, we report that ZIF-67 derived nano-cube Co3O4 as model catalysts were immobilized in the rotary-angle three-dimensional (3D) printed multilayer reduced graphene oxide/carbon nanotubes (Co3O4/R-rGO/CNTs) membrane for the highly efficient degradation of antibiotic pollutants through sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation process (SR-AOP). The macropores in the designed Co3O4/R-rGO/CNTs membrane are distributed in a rotationally staggered arrangement, which increases the opportunity for contaminant contact with the catalyst. The micro-cellular structures formed by the freeze-casting treatment in Co3O4/R-rGO/CNTs membrane provide abundant anchor sites for catalysts as-well-as plentiful active sites for catalytic reactions. The degradation efficiency of the designed membrane toward aureomycin hydrochloride (CTC) reached 99.3% at a flux rate of 636.9 L m−2 h−1, which is increased by 100% comparing with the traditional 3D printing membrane with vertical macroporous arrays. This strategy put forward a new idea for the efficient degradation of antibiotic pollutants and has great application prospects in the field of environmental remediation.

2.73 Parent Physical Activity, Social Video Chatting, and Mental Health During COVID-19: Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Associations

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns in Canada resulted in limited opportunities for physical activity and social contact with others. More physical activity has been associated with less depression and anxiety. The association of video chatting with depression and anxiety is less clear. We examined the longitudinal causal pathways of physical activity and social video chatting, both potentially modifiable risk factors, on parent symptoms of depression and anxiety over the COVID-19 pandemic.