Access System Research Articles

Real-time water quality monitoring using AI-enabled sensors: Detection of contaminants and UV disinfection analysis in smart urban water systems

This study introduces a novel method for assessing water quality, employing a cutting-edge sensor system integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Addressing the global challenge of water scarcity and pollution, the research focuses on the innovative use of spectroscopic analysis for real-time water quality monitoring. The study evaluates the effectiveness of this system in distinguishing between clean, contaminated, and UV-disinfected water samples, highlighting its precision in detecting variations in water quality. Central to the research is the deployment of advanced machine learning algorithms, including Random Forest, Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Neural Networks, to process and classify spectral data. These models demonstrate remarkable accuracy in real-time classification, underscoring the synergy between AI and environmental science in addressing critical public health issues. Significantly, the study showcases the potential of UV disinfection in water treatment, as evidenced by the spectral changes observed in disinfected water samples. This aspect of the research emphasizes the role of spectral analysis in verifying the efficacy of water treatment processes. Overall, this study paves the way for more sophisticated and accessible water quality monitoring systems, offering a promising solution to one of the most pressing environmental challenges. The integration of AI and spectral analysis in this research offers a breakthrough in ensuring a safe water supply and effective water resource management. This study utilizes advanced machine learning algorithms, including Random Forest, Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Neural Networks, for water quality assessment. These models process and classify spectral data with high precision, highlighting variations in water quality.

Patient experiences of remote consulting with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia: a qualitative study.

Remote and digital consulting in primary care has rapidly expanded since March 2020. It is important to understand patient experiences, particularly for those living with complex long-term conditions, to identify how care can best be delivered, including within the remote space. To explore the experiences of people living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis [CFS/ME] and Fibromyalgia when consulting remotely in primary care. Semi-structured interviews with patients living with CFS/ME and fibromyalgia in general practice in England METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 participants. The interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically according to a Foucauldian theoretical framework. All participants highlighted needing to feel believed by clinicians. Many reported difficulties with telephone and online consulting due to the lack of physical communication. Positive outcomes were reported when there was a good relationship with a clinician. Continuity in care and recognising the complexity of these conditions were also considered important. This study allowed people living with CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia to describe their experiences when consulting remotely. Participants highlighted needing to feel listened to and felt they benefited from an ongoing relationship with a clinician although this was difficult to achieve when consulting remotely. Some advantages of remoted consulting were reported, particularly when symptoms were troublesome. Flexible access systems with a range of consultation modalities or preferred clinician(s) availability could improve healthcare encounters, particularly given the increased use of remote consulting, in primary care.

IMPROVEMENT OF INFOCOMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES BUSINESS STRUCTURES IN THE CONTEXT OF INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT

The most important strategic resource of any business structure is information and communication. In view of this, infocommunication activity is an integral part of the functioning and the key to the success of the enterprise in the conditions of innovative development. Because business structures are open systems and exchange messages with the external environment. In today's business environment, which is accompanied by extreme business conditions, the importance of infocommunication activities is growing. Part of the business processes is implemented through the organization of the system of both remote access and remote participation. This necessitates the improvement of approaches to the management of infocommunication activities of the business structure, which is associated with the processes of providing, transmitting, storing, deleting, evaluating data and messages about objects. At the same time, the role of infocommunication activities in modern conditions is growing. The volume of messages received by the company must be processed, and the channels of information transmission are expanded accordingly. This requires due attention to information and communication management processes.

Innovative IoT Smart Lock System: Enhancing Security with Fingerprint and RFID Technology

Security concerns in residential and working environments are more critical than ever, yet traditional door locks that rely on physical keys still hold significant vulnerabilities. Those key risks include loss, misplacement, or copying and may result in unauthorized access. Moving into Industry 4.0, there is great potential to integrate IoT technology to create a far more sophisticated and resilient door access system to handle such concerns. This paper analyze the design and development of a new IoT-based smart lock system enhancing security with fingerprint recognition, RFID technology, and application control via Wi-Fi as an additional to conventional lock such as kill switch and also front desk switch. In the discussed system, the ESP8266 microcontroller is used for wireless communication. Then, Virtuino IoT applications provided the function for real-time monitoring, while HiveMQ MQTT broker secured data transmissions. Therefore, the electromagnetic locking mechanism at the door was improved by using multi-layer access control. As mentioned, the methodology would provide an integration of critical hardware parts, such as NodeMCU ESP8266, Arduino Uno and electromagnetic locks, with robust software solutions in terms of secure communication and control. Once developed, the system architecture will be simulated and tested for its effectiveness in achieving better security and operational efficiency. The opted multi-layered security system can be beneficial to residential and working environment and is designed to overcome the limitations of conventional locks. Thus, enhancing the implementation of IoT-based security solutions in everyday life.

Utility of covered stents as a bypass for the treatment of central venous occlusion: a case report

BackgroundCentral venous occlusion (CVO) is difficult to treat with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty because the guidewire cannot pass through the occluded segments. In this study, we devised a new method for establishing an extra-anatomic bypass between the right subclavian vein and the superior vena cava via a covered stent to treat whole-segment occlusion of the right brachiocephalic vein (BCV) with calcification.Case presentationWe present the case of a 58-year-old female patient who complained of right arm swelling present for 1.5 years. Twelve years prior, the patient began hemodialysis because chronic glomerulonephritis had progressed to end-stage renal disease. During the first 3 years, a right internal jugular vein (IJV)-tunneled cuffed catheter was used as the dialysis access, and the catheter was replaced once. A left arteriovenous fistula (AVF) was subsequently established. Owing to occlusion of the left AVF, a new fistula was established on the right upper extremity 1.5 years prior to this visit. Angiography of the right upper extremity revealed complete occlusion of the right BCV and IJV with calcification. Because of the failure to pass the guidewire across the lesion, we established an extra-anatomic bypass between the right subclavian vein and the superior vena cava with a covered stent. Angiography confirmed the patency of whole vascular access system. After 3 months of follow-up, the patient’s AVF function and the bypass patency were satisfactory.ConclusionsAs a new alternative for the treatment of long, angled CVO with or without calcification, a covered stent can be used to establish an extravascular bypass between central veins.

Power-efficient full-duplex near user with power allocation and antenna selection in NOMA-based systems

This paper proposes a power scaling (PS) technique aimed at mitigating the outage floor problem commonly encountered in multi-user full-duplex (FD) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems. Two antenna modes denominated as adaptive antenna mode (AAM) and fixed antenna mode (FAM) are utilized in this work for L FD near users in close proximity. In addition, a combined method of selecting both antenna mode and near user integrated with PS is employed to improve the overall network performance. Moreover, a power allocation between the chosen near user and far user is considered. In the low-to-moderate power regions, by AAM and FAM, we achieve twice of full diversity gain and full diversity gain, respectively. The research presents mathematical expressions for deriving the average capacity and outage probability and supports the theoretical findings with simulation-based evidence. The results of this work show that PS method not only contributes to a greater spatial diversity but also leads to superior performance compared to traditional FD NOMA systems. Moreover, our proposed method overcomes the outage floor and capacity ceiling. Furthermore, the work can be developed to 6G massive MIMO technology in multi-user FD cooperative NOMA systems.

Ergodic Rate Analysis of Simultaneous Transmitting and Reflecting Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Assisted Rate-Splitting Multiple Access Systems Based on Discrete Phase Shifts.

In this paper, we combine simultaneous transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) with rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) technology and investigate the ergodic rate performance of an STAR-assisted RSMA system. Considering the discrete phase shifts of the STAR-RIS in practice, the downlink performance of STAR-RIS-assisted RSMA with discrete phase shifts is compared to that with continuous phase shifts. Firstly, the cumulative distribution function of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of users is analyzed. Then, the total ergodic rate of the system and its approximate closed-form solution are, respectively, derived based on the cumulative distribution function of users. The simulation results validate the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis, showing good agreement between the derived theoretical ergodic rate and the corresponding simulations. Although the system performance with discrete phase shifts is inferior to that with continuous phase shifts due to quantization errors, the performance of the continuous phase shift system is well approximated when the quantization bit of the phase shift system reaches 3 in the simulations. Additionally, the impact of the number of STAR-RIS elements on the system's performance is analyzed.

AI-Vision: A Three-Layer Accessible Image Exploration System for People with Visual Impairments in China

Accessible image exploration systems are able to help people with visual impairments (PVI) to understand image content by providing different types of interactions. With the development of computer vision technologies, image exploration systems are supporting more fine-grained image content processing, including image segmentation, description and object recognition. However, in developing countries like China, it is still rare for PVI to widely rely on such accessible system. To better understand the usage situation of accessible image exploration system in China and improve the image understanding of PVI in China, we developed AI-Vision, an Android based hierarchical accessible image exploration system supporting the generations of image general description, local object description and metadata information. Our 7-day diary study with 10 PVI verified the usability of AI-Vision and also revealed a series of design implications for improving accessible image exploration systems similar to AI-Vision.

Socially Sustainable Mobility as a Service (MaaS): A practical MCDM framework to evaluate accessibility and inclusivity with application

Promoting socially sustainable mobility services for all social groups is one of the key elements for sustainable development according to the UN's sustainable development goals. Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a rapidly growing smart mobility concept, has the potential to achieve this goal. However, measuring societal impacts of MaaS considering vulnerable social groups' (elderly, disabled, low-income people) needs is still a question for scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. This paper presents a practical 3-stage framework to evaluate the accessibility and inclusion of MaaS systems based on a range of indicators, and a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method. A worldwide experts' view survey was conducted among transportation academics and practitioners with 105 valid responses to prioritise the main and sub-criteria in proving an accessible and inclusive MaaS system. The results of MCDM analysis show that accessible transport services, accessible MaaS platforms, and accessibility data collection have a share of 51 %, 29 %, and 20 %, respectively. The functionality of the proposed framework has been illustrated on a real-world multi-city MaaS implementation within the Solent area, in particular Portsmouth city located in Southeast England (UK). The policy recommendations proposed in this study shed light on guiding stakeholders and policymakers to select and implement an accessible and inclusive MaaS system.

Optimized deep learning‐based channel estimation for pilot contamination in a massive multiple‐input‐multiple‐output‐non‐orthogonal multiple access system

SummaryOne of the advanced field in 5G cellular networks is the Massive Multiple‐Input‐Multiple‐Output (MIMO), which creates a massive antenna array by offering numerous antennas at the destination. This grows as a hot research topic in the wireless sectors as it enhances the volume and spectrum usage of the channel. The spectral efficiency (SE) is maximized using the abundant antennas employed by MIMO using spatial multiplexing of consumers, which needs precise channel state information (CSI). The SE is affected by both pilot overhead and pilot contamination. To mitigate the contamination and to estimate the suitable channel for communication, an efficient strategy is introduced using the proposed Namib Beetle Aquila optimization (NBAO)_Deep Q network (DQN). Here, the optimal pilot location is identified by employing NBAO, which is an integration of Namib beetle optimization (NBO) and Aquila optimizer (AO). Moreover, DQN is introduced to determine the suitable channel and metrics, such as bit error rate (BER) and normalized mean square error (MSE) is used for evaluation. The normalized MSE channel estimation is utilized to mitigate the effects of pilot contamination. Additionally, designed NBAO + DQN have attained a value of 0.0006 and 0.0005 for BER and normalized MSE.

Transforming the Judicial System: The Impact of Machine Learning on Legal Processes and Outcomes

This paper explores the transformative impact of Machine Learning (ML) on legal processes and outcomes within the judicial system, aiming to analyze current applications, evaluate benefits and challenges, and assess ethical and practical implications. A comprehensive methodology is employed, including a literature review of academic articles, industry reports, and legal documents, case studies of specific ML tools like Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) and ROSS Intelligence, and interviews with legal professionals, data scientists, and ethicists. Key findings reveal that ML enhances efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility in legal processes, with applications in recidivism prediction, legal research, e-discovery, and online dispute resolution. For instance, tools such as COMPAS aid in predicting recidivism rates, while ROSS Intelligence and CaseText streamline legal research through Natural Language Processing (NLP). However, significant challenges arise, particularly concerning data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the ethical implications of automated decision-making, as evidenced by criticisms of the COMPAS system for potential racial bias. The research underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration between legal experts and data scientists to develop robust and legally sound ML tools. The implications of these findings are profound, calling for clear policies and regulations to ensure transparency and fairness, the development of ethical frameworks to address bias and privacy concerns, and the provision of education and training for legal professionals in data science and ML. The paper concludes that continuous research and refinement of algorithms are essential to address emerging challenges and expand the beneficial applications of ML in the legal field, contributing to a more efficient, equitable, and accessible judicial system.

Potential For Night Culinary Tourism On Jalan Pekalipan Cirebon

Research has been carried out on the culinary potential of mala m on Jalan Pekalipan Cirebon. The method used is a descriptive method by conducting surveys, interviews and secondary data analysis from various sources that can be accounted for. The results of the research indicate that Pekalipan culinary tourism located on Pekalipan street is the first culinary tourism carried out by the Cirebon City Government. Pekalipan Culinary Tourism was inaugurated as one of the culinary destinations through the Pekalipan Festival activities, which was inaugurated on Saturday, September 22, 2022, Pekalipan Culinary Tourism: The first culinary tour in the city of Cirebon initiated by the Cirebon City Government. Pekalipan culinary tourism has 15 traders, each with culinary specialties served to visitors, both Cirebon specialties and contemporary foods. Pekalipan culinary tourism has been used as a tourism destination that can be developed by the city government by referring to the aspects that must be fulfilled as a tourism destination by looking at the 4 A aspects, namely attraction (attraction), accessible (system achieved), amenities (facilities) and ancillary (tourism institutions). Pekalipan Culinary Tourism, as one of the culinary tourism in Cirebon City, can be developed as one of the attractions in the city of Cirebon as a tourism destination, but the following steps must be taken: There is a close cooperative relationship with various nearby tourist objects such as the Kacirebonan palace, Kasepuhan palace, and Kanoman palace to attract visitors to Pekalipan culinary tourism. There must be improvements and additions of facilities that visitors can use and utilize, such as toilets, safe and comfortable parking lots, and entertainment art and culture typical of Cirebon so that visitors will feel more typical of the city of Cirebon. The formation of forums in the form of Pekalipan culinary tourism institutions to form activities to attract tourists to visit Pekalipan culinary tourism.

“Like the Wild West”: Health care provider perspectives on impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on patients and providers at a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Ontario, Canada

IntroductionLegalization has increased cannabis availability in Canada. Research shows complex relationships between cannabis use and mental health, and a need for health care providers to engage with patients about cannabis use. Providers have noted gaps in knowledge and research on the medical effects of cannabis as barriers to service delivery. It is unclear how providers and patients in mental health care settings have been impacted by legalization. MethodsFrom June 1 to July 2, 2021, we conducted a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 20 health care providers in a range of roles (e.g., physicians, pharmacists, nurses) within a psychiatric hospital setting. Participants responded to open-ended questions with follow-up probes on various topics related to cannabis legalization. Topics included impacts on patient mental and physical health, clinical impacts, education and training, legal cannabis retail system and the medical cannabis access system. ResultsThematic analysis identified several themes in the data. Participants reported that legalization has had some positive impacts relating to clinical care and cannabis safety. They also expressed concerns with increased rates of cannabis use, risks to mental health and ongoing challenges engaging with patients about cannabis. Participants made recommendations for medical educators and regulators (e.g., updated curriculums, clinical guidelines), the mental health care sector (e.g., implementation of standardized screening), government (e.g., public health campaigns, safe use guidelines), the medical cannabis access system (e.g., increased regulation, research), and the legal cannabis system (e.g., zoning changes, point-of-sale information). ConclusionsThis study begins to address the paucity of data on impacts of legalization from mental health service delivery settings. Findings show that although legalization has had some positive impacts, there are ongoing patient concerns and unmet provider needs. More research is needed to understand the experiences of providers delivering care to populations experiencing mental health and/or substance use concerns who use cannabis in the post-legalization era.

Design of an integrated network order system for main distribution network considering power dispatch efficiency

This study presents a comprehensive review of the primary distribution design of an advanced network control system, emphasizing its evolution from initial requirements to practical applications. The system solves complex problems of power management by combining real-time data analysis, intelligent decision making for resource allocation, rapid fault correction, remote monitoring and complex optimization methods, all aimed at ensuring stable and safe operation of the power grid. Its performance is geared towards fast response, efficient data processing and synchronous processing tasks, ensuring smooth operation even under heavy workloads. Security is enhanced through strict protocols, encryption methods, and controlled access systems. The system is divided into four layers-data collection, communication, decision-making and application management-using innovative tools such as Kalman filters and deep Q networks. The research showcases the integrated network command system’s prowess, achieving an average response time of 0.27 s, 98.5% dispatching accuracy, and 83.2% resource utilization, evidencing exceptional performance. It excels under various tests, including managing high loads with minimal accuracy loss, rapidly adapting to changes with a hydro model response time of 0.22 s, efficiently integrating renewables at 78.0% efficiency, and proving resilient in peak hours, affirming its capability to bolster grid efficiency, reliability, and integration of renewable energy resources. By outlining these specific achievements, this case study not only illustrates the complex design of the system, but also highlights its great potential for improving grid resilience and efficiency, attracting a wide audience interested in the future of energy management.

The Second Life Metaverse and Its Usefulness in Medical Education After a Quarter of a Century.

The immersive virtual world platform Second Life (SL) was conceived 25 years ago, when Philip Rosedale founded Linden Lab in 1999 with the intention of developing computing hardware that would allow people to immerse themselves in a virtual world. This initial effort was transformed 4 years later into SL, a universally accessible virtual world centered on the user, with commercial transactions and even its own virtual currency, which fully connects with the concept of the metaverse, recently repopularized after the statements of the chief executive officer of Meta (formerly Facebook) in October 2021. SL is considered the best known virtual environment among higher education professionals. This paper aimed to review medical education in the SL metaverse; its evolution; and its possibilities, limitations, and future perspectives, focusing especially on medical education experiences during undergraduate, residency, and continuing medical education. The concept of the metaverse and virtual worlds was described, making special reference to SL and its conceptual philosophy, historical evolution, and technical aspects and capabilities for higher education. A narrative review of the existing literature was performed, including at the same time a point of view from our teaching team after an uninterrupted practical experience of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the last 13 years with >4000 users and >10 publications on the subject. From an educational point of view, SL has the advantages of being available 24/7 and creating in the student the important feeling of "being there" and of copresence. This, together with the reproduction of the 3D world, real-time interaction, and the quality of voice communication, makes the immersive experiences unique, generating engagement and a fluid interrelation of students with each other and with their teachers. Various groups of researchers in medical education have developed experiences during these years, which have shown that courses, seminars, workshops and conferences, problem-based learning experiences, evaluations, teamwork, gamification, medical simulation, and virtual objective structured clinical examinations can be successfully carried out. Acceptance from students and faculty is generally positive, recognizing its usefulness for undergraduate medical education and continuing medical education. In the 25 years since its conception, SL has proven to be a virtual platform that connects with the concept of the metaverse, an interconnected, open, and globally accessible system that all humans can access to socialize or share products for free or using a virtual currency. SL remains active and technologically improved since its creation. It is necessary to continue carrying out educational experiences, outlining the organization, objectives, and content and measuring the actual educational impact to make SL a tool of more universal use.

Mental health care measures and innovations to cope with COVID-19: an integrative review.

This integrative review aims to identify the mental health care measures that were produced during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was conducted on three databases (SciELO, PubMed, and LILACS) with the following descriptors in Portuguese, English, and Spanish: "SAÚDE MENTAL" or "SALUD MENTAL" or "MENTAL HEALTH" AND "COVID-19" from 2020 to 2021. In total, 3,451 articles were found, 43 of which were analyzed. Most measures were digital, stemmed from public institutions, focused on the local perspective, and were integrated with the public health care system. This study discusses the models of care in mental health based on measures to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses the Brazilian health care system, reiterating its resilience. In conclusion, digital measures occurred most often. This study suggest the evaluation of the accessibility of this mental health care model for most vulnerable groups. Finally, this research reinforces the importance of the Brazilian health care system for public health and access to information to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Non-orthogonal resource scheduling with enhanced preamble detection method for cellular random access networks

In this article, we propose a non-orthogonal resource scheduling (NORS) scheme with an enhanced preamble detection (PD) method for cellular random access (RA) systems. The enhanced PD method is designed based on a deep learning technique that can classify three PD statuses: idle, collision-free, and collision. Because of this collision resolution capability, the base station (BS) can exploit radio resources non-orthogonally in contention-based RA protocols. In addition, we mathematically analyze the performance of our proposed NORS scheme in terms of RA success probability and resource utilization efficiency and conduct a comparison with the baseline orthogonal resource scheduling (ORS) scheme. Through simulations, we verify the validity of our mathematical analysis. As a result, our results will be a useful guideline for resource scheduling and provide support for massive connectivity.

Revisiting Outage Probability Analysis for Two-User Fluid Antenna Multiple Access System

Revisiting Outage Probability Analysis for Two-User Fluid Antenna Multiple Access System

Enhancing food access in a comprehensive cancer center area of influence through local partner capacity building.

Food insecurity, an economic and social condition of limited food access, is associated with poor diet quality-a risk factor for several common cancers. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center supports healthy food access through community-led evidence translation by actively partnering with community-based organizations (CBOs). These partnerships aim to enhance the capacity of food assistance CBOs to effectively implement evidence-based food insecurity mitigation programs in the cancer center's area of influence. This case study aims to describe the cancer center's model for local food access capacity building and detail operationalization in the context of a whole-community cancer prevention effort (Be Well Baytown) in Baytown, Texas. Elements central to the capacity building model include (i) assessment of baseline needs and capacity, (ii) empowering a community champion within a relevant CBO, (iii) mapping inter-sectoral community partnerships, collaborations, and linkages, and (iv) leveraging systems, connections, and resources to provide an enabling environment for overall food access systems growth. Through this process, Be Well Baytown enhanced the capacity of a local food pantry leading to increases in total reach, pounds of food distributed, and number of food distribution events in collaboration with intersectoral partners from 2018 to 2023. This case study highlights the model's implementation as a co-benefit community partnership strategy to maximize the impact of food security programs integrated with comprehensive cancer center prevention efforts.

Clinical implementation, barriers, and unmet needs of rTMS and neuro-navigation systems in stroke rehabilitation: a nationwide survey in South Korea.

The objective of this study was to determine the implementation, clinical barriers, and unmet needs of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and neuro-navigation systems for stroke rehabilitation. We employed a nationwide survey via Google Forms (web and mobile) consisting of 36 questions across rTMS and neuro-navigation systems, focusing on their implementation, perceptions, and unmet needs in stroke recovery. The survey targeted physiatrists registered in the Korean Society for Neuro-rehabilitation and in rehabilitation hospitals in South Korea. Of 1,129 surveys distributed, 122 responses were analyzed. Most respondents acknowledged the effectiveness of rTMS in treating post-stroke impairments; however, they highlighted significant unmet needs in standardized treatment protocols, guidelines, education, device usability, and insurance coverage. Unmet needs for neuro-navigation were also identified; only 7.4% of respondents currently used such systems, despite acknowledging their potential to enhance treatment accuracy. Seventy percent of respondents identified lack of prescription coverage, time and errors in preparation, and device cost as barriers to clinical adoption of neuro-navigation systems. Despite recognition of the potential of rTMS in stroke rehabilitation, there is a considerable gap between research evidence and clinical practice. Addressing these challenges, establishing standardized protocols, and advancing accessible neuro-navigation systems could significantly enhance the clinical application of rTMS, offering a more personalized, effective treatment modality for stroke recovery.