Trusted Third Party Research Articles

Danish citizens' perspectives on the preventive medication recommended after screen-detected cardiovascular disease: A qualitative study.

The rationale for screening for cardiovascular disease (CVD) is debated as a prevention strategy. However, research shows that when preventive medication is initiated after screening for CVD, mortality rates decrease, especially among men. When implementing screening programmes, facilitating citizens' informed decisions and empowering their autonomy in the decision-making process are crucial. We therefore aimed to explore citizens' perspectives on and decisions regarding initiating cardiovascular preventive medication for screen-detected CVD. We employed an exploratory qualitative design using semi-structured interviews to investigate participants' perspectives on and decisions regarding initiating cardiovascular preventive medication for screen-detected CVD. Twelve interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's six-step approach. We found one overall theme, Being on a continuum between wellness and illness, with two underlying sub-themes. Sub-theme (1) Navigating mixed feelings and pathways reflects participants' perspectives on CVD preventive medication, which were positioned on a continuum with shifting perspectives. The state between wellness and illness was experienced as liminal and characterised by uncertainty and concerns about CVD risk. (2) Navigating medication decisions: a negotiated process. Pivotal medical decisions hinged on trust in authorities or own judgement, influenced by attitudes towards the need for medication, perception of meaningfulness, asymptomatic condition, age, family responsibility and predisposition. Participants' medical decisions were supported and impacted by significant others. We uncovered a continuum of shifting perspectives ranging from feeling improved health to experiencing fear of CVD. For certain citizens, it is like navigating between these contrasting feelings. The perceived necessity and meaningfulness, in particular, shape medical decisions. Providing support for informed decisions is crucial and includes significant others. Shared decision-making with healthcare professionals as facilitators is needed. Future research is warranted to investigate how to embrace the various perspectives on initiating CVD preventive medication in clinical practice.

Psychological Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccination Uptake among Pregnant Women in Kenya: A Comprehensive Model Integrating Health Belief Model Constructs, Anticipated Regret, and Trust in Health Authorities

Pregnant women, considered at risk of COVID-19 complications because of the immunosuppressive and physiological changes in pregnancy, were initially hesitant to receive COVID-19 vaccination. This study assessed the association between COVID-19 vaccination uptake, psychological determinants (health belief model (HBM) constructs, anticipated regret, trust in health authorities), and provider recommendation among pregnant women in Kenya. Using data from a cross-sectional study, we conducted correlations, binary and multivariable logistic regressions, and moderation analysis to explore relationships between COVID-19 vaccination and psychological variables. Of the 115 pregnant women, 64% reported receiving provider recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination. There were weak positive correlations between the variables. Participants with high anticipated regret scores were more likely to receive COVID-19 vaccination compared to their peers (AOR = 4.27; 95% CI, 1.23–14.85), while provider recommendation increased the odds of COVID-19 vaccination (OR = 3.70; 95% CI, 1.53–8.92). None of the HBM constructs were significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccination. The findings related to psychological variables require the reconceptualization of theory-informed interventions to streamline healthcare provision. The critical role of healthcare providers in COVID-19 vaccination recommendations suggests a need to empower health practitioners with effective communication skills to improve maternal health outcomes.

Use of Social Media in Disaster Management: Challenges and Strategies

Studies on social media (SM) and disaster management (DM) have mainly focused on the adaptation, application, and use of SM in each stage of DM. With the widespread availability and use of SM, the effective utilisation of SM in DM is impeded by various challenges but not yet comprehensively researched. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the challenges as well as the strategies to overcome the challenges and categorises them into a classified model. This study adopts a systematic literature review to present and analyse the challenges and strategies for using SM in DM. Utilising prominent databases, 72 publications were carefully selected and analysed qualitatively using content analysis. The findings revealed four key challenges to its users: the spread of misinformation; insufficient human resources to manage SM use; the lack of trust in information and authorities; and the poor information quality and content of messages. This study identified several strategies to overcome challenges, which can be classified into three sectors of the SM community: individuals, organisations, and SM companies. These findings contribute to enhancing the effective utilisation of SM in DM by community practitioners. Furthermore, this study provides insight into the current status of knowledge and identifies the research gaps around SM in DM for future research.

Atomic cross-chain swap based on private key exchange

Atomic Cross-Chain Swap (ACCS) is one important topic in cryptocurrency, where users can securely and trustlessly exchange assets between two different blockchains. However, most known ACCS schemes assume specific scripting functionalities of the underlying blockchains, such as Hash Time Locked Contracts (HTLC). In addition, these schemes are typically only applicable to certain digital signature schemes, like Schnorr or Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) signatures. In this paper, we propose a generic ACCS scheme, independent from the underlying blockchains. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first solution of this kind. Our results are as follows. First, we define a formal system model of ACCS. Next, we present a generic ACCS scheme meets our model. This scheme admits atomicity in cross-chain swaps without the need for a Trusted Third Party (TTP) and protects users’ privacy. Finally, by using the Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge (NIZK) proof protocol as a tool, we instantiate our generic scheme for Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem-based (ECDLP-based) signatures. In addition, we implement our scheme, and the experimental results show that our protocol outperforms the existing ACCS schemes, such as the HTLC-based schemes.

Exploring the Nexus: Tax Compliance and Sustainable Development in Namibia

Tax revenue collection serves as the bedrock for states to avail infrastructure, essential national needs and development, encompassing critical sectors such as education, healthcare, and social welfare. This study explored and answered a question on which factors influence domestic taxpayers’ compliance in Namibia. This study tested the nine factors unpacked by Trifan et al., (2023) against 113 domestic taxpayers’ messages sent between June 2022 and December 2023 regarding tax concerns. This study was underpinned by established tax compliance explanations, including, political accountability social norms, deterrence factors, and fiscal exchange. A qualitative approach was adopted, by collecting messages from taxpayers through the Namibia Revenue Agency ‘s (NamRA) Facebook page and published Short Message Services (SMS) by the Namibian News Paper. The data were quantified to provide a better understanding as to what extent categorized taxpayers’ messages contributed to tax compliance in Namibia. The results revealed that five factors (trust in tax authority, perceived fairness, tax legislation and procedures simplicity, personal financial and economic factors, and malfunctioning of integrated tax administration (ITAS), were found to have a likelihood influence on tax complaisance in Namibia.

Проблемы формирования налоговой культуры в России

This article addresses the issues surrounding the formation of the domestic tax culture in Russia. These issues are largely attributed to the state of “cultural tax shock” experienced by the Russian population in the post-perestroika period. However, even in Soviet times and earlier, a characteristic feature of Russian mentality known as “tax nihilism” was observed. The current state of tax culture can be characterized in two aspects: by examining the level of tax literacy among the population and taxpayers’ trust in tax authorities. Particular attention should be paid to youth in the formation of tax culture due to their detachment from the consequences of the societal transformation processes at the end of the last century. The article analyzes ways to increase the level of tax literacy among Russian schoolchildren. However, the problem of tax literacy among Russian students persists, coupled with the increasing prevalence of secondary employment among them. Measures to enhance public trust in tax authorities are also considered. The article emphasizes the role of developing the theoretical basis of tax culture, which requires attention not only to developments in traditional fields of law and economics but also in social research on fiscal sociology and the philosophy of taxation. In conclusion, the formation of tax culture in Russia faces multifaceted challenges stemming from historical legacies, societal perceptions, and educational gaps. By addressing these issues holistically, Russia can progress towards cultivating a more informed and cooperative tax culture among its populace.

Multi-TA model-based conditional privacy-preserving authentication protocol for fog-enabled VANET

The rapid growth of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANET), fueled by advancements in the Internet-of-Things, cloud computing, Intelligent Transportation Systems, and fog computing, has led to the introduction of fog node-based VANET to serve resource-constrained devices. In the traditional security models of VANET, due to the use of a centralized trusted authority, there is a chance of single-point-of-failure and service unavailable with the increased service access requests. Also, there was one-to-one communication between each roadside unit and trusted authority. This may increase the system complexity and increase the traffic load. To address these issues, a novel authentication protocol for fog-enabled VANET based on multiple trusted authority model is discussed which reduces the chance of service unavailability and single-point-of-failure as the entire traffic load is distributed among multiple sub-trusted authority. Due to the incorporation of fog node, a group of roadside units can be controlled centrally, where trusted authority does not need to perform individual authentication for each roadside unit. The proposed protocol's security is rigorously examined through both informal and formal security analysis. Additionally, the protocol exhibits enhanced security features, as demonstrated in a performance comparison section, showcasing its ability to meet the security and privacy requirements while incurring relatively low communication and computation and storage costs. Thus, the proposed protocol offers a secure and efficient authentication protocol for fog-enabled VANET.

A Decentralized Authenticated Key Agreement Scheme Based on Smart Contract for Securing Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

Since the communication channels in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) are wireless and open, malicious adversaries can monitor or fabricate messages transmitted across them. To secure vehicular communications, an authenticated key agreement (AKA) scheme needs to be designed for VNAETs. Traditional VANETs AKA schemes require the trusted authority (TA) to authenticate the legality of message and corresponding sender. However, the TA in these schemes is vulnerable to suffer from single-point-of-failure issues. Some blockchain-based VANETs AKA schemes have been proposed recently to address the deficiency. However, these schemes rely on the consortium or private blockchain in which TAs are still required for key generation, resulting that the practicality is limited. To solve the issue, we design a smart contract-based VANETs AKA scheme, where the AKA algorithm of our proposed scheme is implemented on smart contract deployed on a public blockchain system and the TA that is responsible for key generation will not be required. The security proof and analysis show that our proposed scheme satisfies the session-key semantic security and essential security and privacy requirements, respectively. The performance analysis demonstrates that our proposed scheme outperforms existing blockchain-based VANETs AKA schemes.

УДОСКОНАЛЕННЯ ДЕРЖАВНОГО РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ РАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ЗЕМЕЛЬНИХ РЕСУРСІВ

Improving state regulation of the rational use of land resources is an important aspect of the sustainable development of Ukraine's economy. This includes optimizing legal and organizational mechanisms aimed at ensuring effective management of land resources, preserving soil fertility, and protecting the environment. Given the relevance of these issues, it is necessary to develop and implement innovative approaches to land resource management that take into account modern challenges and trends. The main directions for improving regulation include creating transparent procedures in the field of land relations, particularly during the transfer of land ownership or lease. An importantstep is the implementation of electronic services that will simplify and accelerate administrative processes, ensure accessibility of information about land plots and their legal status. This approach will contribute to increasing trust in government authorities and reducing corruption risks. Rational use of land resources also involves the implementation of environmentally balanced farming methods that minimize negative impacts on the environment. This includes the application of modern agro-technologies, organic farming, and soil condition monitoring systems. Government programs to support farmers and agricultural producers in implementing such methods should become an important component of state policy in the agricultural sector. Moreover, it is necessary to strengthen the control over the use of land resources by state bodies and the public. This can be achieved through the creation of effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the condition of land, as well as through the active participation of public organizations in the decision-making processes regarding land resource management. Information and awareness campaigns for the population about the importance of

Third-Party and Bankruptcy Effects under Chinese Trust Law: Comparisons with English Trust Law

Abstract In English law, the trust's third-party and bankruptcy effects contribute significantly to its wide use in commercial transactions. In view of the trust's attractiveness in conducting commercial dealings, China has also introduced the trust model into its domestic legal system to enhance its financial infrastructure. However, given the extent to which Chinese law has been influenced by the Roman-Germanic tradition, China's replication of the trust's third-party and bankruptcy effects has encountered doctrinal obstacles. Drawing upon the experience of its Northeast Asian forerunners, China has established two mechanisms to achieve the third-party and bankruptcy effects: the regime of trust fund independence and the granting of the right of rescission to beneficiaries. These two mechanisms represent the adjustments made by Chinese legislators in the process of transplanting the trust model into the Chinese legal context. Adopting a comparative law perspective, this article examines these mechanisms in the Chinese law setting for two reasons: first, to explore the mechanisms’ constituent elements and their operation, as well as the roles of both mechanisms in the Chinese trust law system; and second, to furnish comparative law scholarship with broader insights into rule transplantation and reconciliation.

Redistrict: Online Public Deliberation Support that Connects and Rebuilds Inclusive Communities

Public deliberations are often a staple ingredient in community decision-making. However, traditional, time-constrained, in-person debates can become highly polarized, eroding trust in authorities, and leaving the community divided. This is the case in redistricting deliberations for public school zoning. Seeking alternative ways of support, we evaluated the potential introduction of an online platform that combines multiple streams of data, visualizes school attendance boundaries, and enables the manipulation of representations of land parcels. To capture multiple stakeholders' values about the potential to enhance public engagement in school rezoning decision-making through an online platform, we conducted interviews with 12 participants with previous experiences in traditional, in-person deliberations. Insights from the interviews highlight the several roles an online platform could take, especially as it provides alternative means of participation (online, synchronous, and asynchronous). Additionally, we discuss the potential for technology to increase the visibility and participation of multiple community actors in public deliberations and present implications for the design of future tools to support public decision-making.

Experiences and Reporting of Unwanted Sexual Behaviors on Great Britain’s Rail Network: A Survey of Victims and Witnesses with an Embedded Randomized Vignette Experiment on Callback Effects

ABSTRACT Unwanted-sexual-behaviors (USBs) on Great Britain’s rail network, though often seen as “lesser-harm” incidents, have profound psychological, emotional, and behavioral impacts on victims and witnesses. A national survey reveals these effects, highlighting the traumatizing effect of USBs, even years later. Victims share their dissatisfaction with reporting USBs and the need for empathetic communication in victim recovery and trust in authorities. The study also examines the impact of reassurance callbacks from police. While a single callback enhanced perceptions of safety and police effectiveness, multiple callbacks were favored, suggesting their potential to improve victim support and confidence in law enforcement responses to USBs.

International Experience in Ensuring Cybersecurity in Local Self Government Management as a Component of the National Security of Ukraine

The study examines the critical relationship between cyber security as a component of national security and its provision in local government administration. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the international experience of ensuring cyber security in the management of local self-governments in Germany, Poland and Ukraine. In research were used visual and graphic methods, a set of methods of processing, comprehension and interpretation of information. This highlights the level of trust in local authorities in Poland, Germany and Ukraine, as well as a comparison of the systems of local self-government entities in the selected countries. It was established that there is a need to create and develop an adequate cybersecurity system. The result of the study is an analysis of the cyber security strategies of Germany, Poland and Ukraine. Prospects for further research are the analysis of the possibility of consolidation and differentiation of powers by subjects of local self-government in ensuring cyber security. An analysis of the real need for the powers related to providing cyber security and the ability to perform them is appropriate.

Sustainability of public administration in Ukraine: analysis of determinants

The article is dedicated to substantiating the thesis that the public administration institution in Ukraine does not exhibit characteristics of stability, meaning it is currently unable to effectively withstand changes, pressures, or contemporary challenges.
 It specifies that the modern interpretation of the content and essence of public administration in Ukraine has two paradigmatic aspects (scientific and normative), the difference between which significantly varies in orientation, methodological approach, focus, and goal characteristics.
 There is a dynamic of their gradual convergence. This indicates a balanced and effective approach to the management of public affairs. However, the public administration institution in Ukraine has not gained normative consolidation, and its further development is justified by the reform of the public service institution, optimization of specific aspects of executive and local self-government activities.
 In justifying the characterization of the public administration institution in Ukraine in terms of hidden stability, it is also pointed out that: 1) citizens’ trust in executive authorities and local self-government remains at a low level, with no stable increase observed; 2) the standard of living in Ukraine is extremely low, and there is no noticeable dynamics towards improvement; 3) the activities of public administrations still do not meet the standards of the SIGMA Program.
 It is determined that the stability of the public administration institution in Ukraine can also be assessed based on indicators of the effectiveness of managing public affairs.
 In summary, the apparent stability observed at first glance conceals some shortcomings and inefficiencies in the public affairs management system, resulting in a lack of clear accountability and effective monitoring, as well as a high risk of corruption, abuse of power, social tensions, etc.

The dimensionality of vaccination intentions: One strain or multiple strains?

People likely have different attitudes toward different vaccines (e.g., they may hold a positive attitude toward the measles, mumps, and rubella-vaccine while simultaneously hold a neutral attitude toward the flu shot). To examine the dimensionality of vaccination intentions, we measured vaccination intentions toward 16 different diseases. We hypothesized that people differentiate between child-directed vaccination intentions and self-directed vaccination intentions. Furthermore, we hypothesized that some commonly studied factors (e.g., trust in authorities and fear of needles) might have different associations with the two subtypes of vaccination intentions. We used data from a nationally representative sample of the Netherlands collected in 2021. We used exploratory (N = 865) and confirmatory factor analysis (N = 865) to evaluate the dimensionality hypothesis and used linear hypothesis tests (N = 1,779) to test whether the commonly studied factors had different associations with the different subtypes of vaccination intentions. The analysis showed two distinct factors of vaccination intentions: intentions toward childhood diseases and intentions toward nonchildhood diseases. Additionally, spiritual beliefs, trust in authorities, and belief in conspiracy theories had stronger associations with nonchildhood diseases than with childhood diseases. Fear of needles, prosocial personality, and religious orthodox beliefs did not have different associations with both types of vaccination intentions. These findings suggest that vaccination intentions is a multidimensional construct and that interventions may benefit from being tailored to the factors relevant for each specific type of vaccine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptions about the COVID-19 disease and the vaccination of those arriving at a vaccination center are correlated with medical public health services management

<b>Background:</b> Perceptions of COVID-19 and vaccination depend on personal beliefs, experiences, and trust in health authorities’ information. Cultural and social factors also influence perceptions. Effective government messaging can minimize barriers to vaccination.<br /> <b>Methodology:</b> This cross-sectional research examines socio-demographic parameters related to risk factors, conducted using questionnaires at the vaccination center of Hippokrateio General Hospital of Athens, Greece (n=167), in the last quarter of 2022. Participants were asked to answer questions regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a measurement tool for assessing good health status developed by the World Health Organization. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS v26.<br /> <b>Results:</b> The study found that women perceive vaccines to cause more harm than men, with younger individuals viewing the infection as harmless. Educational level also influences vaccine side effects and long-term harm. Perceptions of COVID-19 differ based on vaccination status.<br /> <b>Conclusions:</b> This research confirms the link between socio-demographic variables and pandemic severity perception, emphasizing the importance of correlated with medical public health services management in enhancing communication strategies and creating effective vaccination campaigns.

Analysis of Coercion-Resistant for E-Voting System based on Blockchain

Abstract: Election absenteeism rates are steadily rising, partly a result of the distance required to cast a vote. The use of electronic voting procedure would eliminate the need for travel and enhance voter turnout. In addition, compared to the conventional paper ballot voting technique, this reduces dangers like manipulations and produces results more quickly. A remotely electronic voting system should, nevertheless, adhere to the highest standards of security, dependability, and transparency given the significance of an election. Numerous remote e-voting systems, many of which are based on blockchain technology, were examined in this literature review. Blockchain technology provides for the removal of the Trusted Third Party (TTP) and the decentralization of transactions while also providing transparent and completely secure data storage, making it a new technical foundation for many different types of IT applications. The use of smart-contract technology, which automates and executes user agreements, is also permitted. The authors of this study examine the most insightful blockchain-based e-voting options. The lack of openness and auditability in conventional voting methods can be addressed by blockchain technology. A reliable computing platform is offered by running a self-enforcing e-voting system on a blockchain for real-time data verification

“Using behavioral insights to inform the COVID-19 vaccine response in Kosovo[1]: Population perceptions and interventions”

ObjectiveUnderstand population perceptions in Kosovo[1] regarding COVID-19 vaccination to inform the pandemic response. MethodsFive rounds of a cross-sectional survey in representative samples of adults during 2020–2021. Analysis includes descriptive statistics, hierarchical cluster analysis, segmentation and logistic regressions. ResultsSelf-reported intention to vaccinate increased after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in Kosovo.[1] In less than one year, vaccination intentions increased from 36% to 66% of those unvaccinated. Predictors for vaccine intentions included gender, age, trust in health authorities. Segmentation analysis identified population segments that had high vaccine nintentions but low uptake, informing messages and campaign initiatives designed to translate intentions into behavior. ConclusionIdentifying people's perceptions and behavior is essential to support evidence-based policy making, especially during outbreak response. InnovationBI is an innovative focus of research in Kosovo [1] where little BI data had been collected prior, and provided a unique understanding of population views, attitudes and behaviors related to COVID-19. These findings were not only essential for an evidence-based pandemic response but also laid the foundation for future broad application of BI to inform interventions that seek to enable, support and promote health-related behaviurs in Kosovo[1]

Problems of ensuring transparency of the fiscal sphere of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, as a country with a diverse economy and rich natural resources, strives for sustainable economic development and strengthening its position in the world arena. One of the key factors contributing to the achievement of these goals is transparency in the fiscal sphere.
 The purpose of the article is to study the impact of financial transparency on citizens' trust in local authorities and their behavior in relation to income payment. When explaining the relationship between financial transparency, trust and willingness to pay, it relies on management and public choice theories.
 Based on the conducted research, it was found that financial transparency has a positive effect on citizens' trust in local authorities and their willingness to pay taxes and fees. The study also showed that both financial transparency and trust in local authorities in Kazakhstan are not at a high level.
 The practical significance lies in assessing the importance of financial transparency to increase trust and willingness to pay. Thus, local authorities are encouraged to look for innovative ways to improve the quality and accessibility of financial information for citizens.
 The study shows that the heads of local authorities who maximize the budget prefer to increase the mobilization of income in order to be able to provide more public services that meet the expectations of citizens.

Role of public attitude, knowledge, and trust in shaping the acceptance of recycled wastewater for potable and non-potable uses

Abstract The acceptance of recycled wastewater plays a pivotal role in shaping the success of water management strategies. This study examines relation of public attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, and trust toward recycled wastewater systems, utilizing a survey of participants. The results reveal substantial knowledge deficits, with only 23.8% correctly defining recycled wastewater. In addition, 46.3% of respondents were knowledgeable about water scarcity, while 45.3% correctly identified the largest water uses. Attitudes were more reserved toward potable applications, with only 5% strongly agreeing to consume recycled water for drinking. Behavioral intentions favored non-potable uses, with 87% agreeing to use recycled wastewater for home gardening and flushing toilets, while 56% considered consuming food irrigated with recycled wastewater acceptable. Trust in water authorities emerged as a significant factor influencing acceptance. Lack of competence and not acting in public interest were identified as key factors eroding trust. The study also explored the influence of religion, revealing that non-contact applications were widely accepted across all religions, while direct-contact applications generated varied responses. The findings underscore the need for targeted educational campaigns, the cultivation of trust, and a nuanced approach considering cultural and religious diversity to promote wastewater recycling.