Hasil untuk "Information resources (General)"

Yuanzhu Wang, Rajah Rasiah

The Pearl River Basin, one of southern China’s most vital water ecosystems, has experienced significant changes in ecosystem service values (ESV) due to rapid urbanization, posing challenges to water resource management and governance. Despite the importance of water-related ecosystem services (WES) in the region, comprehensive assessments of their spatiotemporal dynamics and drivers remain scarce. This study addresses this gap by employing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and a human disturbance index to evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of ESV in the basin from 2000 to 2020, with a focus on water resources. Using the ecosystem service value equivalent approach, adjusted for biomass factors, we assess the impacts of land use/cover changes—particularly in water bodies, forests, and croplands—on ESV. The findings reveal an overall decline in ESV by approximately 15 %, with water-related ecosystem services showing marked sensitivity to human activity, especially in urbanizing areas, where declines of up to 30 % were observed in some regions. Geographic detector analysis highlights that population density, GDP, vegetation cover, and human activity collectively drive changes in water-linked ESV. These findings underscore the need for sustainable water resource management strategies that balance ecological stability with socio-economic development, offering critical guidance for integrated water-ecology-society governance in the Pearl River Basin.

Mohammed Hisham AL-SMADI, Sami Awad AL-KHARABSHEH , Zaid M. ALZRIGAT et al.

The current study aimed to identify the impact of human capital in organizational performance in Jordanian five-star hotels. The descriptive analytical approach was used, and a questionnaire was applied consisting of three parts: the first is the demographic information of the study sample, the second is the human resources management scale consisting of (20) paragraphs, and the third is the organizational performance scale consisting of (15) paragraphs. Its validity and reliability were confirmed. The study population consisted of (6189) employees in five-star hotels in Amman, the sample consisted of (362) employees in five-star hotels in Amman were selecting by stratified sampling due to hotel variable by get back percent (94.3 %) whenevre (384) questionnaires was collecting by E-Link, and delay (22) by percent (5.7 %). After collecting the data and conducting the appropriate statistical processing, the study concluded that there is a statistically significant at level (α ≤ 0.05) effect of human capital in its dimensions (knowledge, skill, experience, and training) on organizational performance with its dimensions (Internal process, Customer satisfaction, learning and development) in Jordanian five-star hotels. Training had the highest effect, then experience, then skill, and finally knowledge. The study proposed a set of recommendations, most notably the need for five-star hotel management to focus on training their human resources and involve them in developing training programs. The need to prioritize organizational performance in five-star hotels, given its significant importance in achieving positive results across hotel services as a whole, and continuously assess the level of human resources to ensure the best customer service at all times.

Roberto Alonso, Roberto Alonso, Roberto Alonso et al.

The development of mRNA vaccines represented a significant achievement in response to the global health crisis during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Evaluating vaccine efficacy entails identifying different anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, such as total antibodies against the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the S-protein, or neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). This study utilized an innovative PETIA-based kit to measure NAb, and the investigation aimed to assess whether levels of anti-RBD IgG and NAb uniformly measured 30 days after vaccination could predict individuals at a higher risk of subsequent infection in the months following vaccination. Among a cohort of healthy vaccinated healthcare workers larger than 6,000, 12 mRNA-1273- and 115 BNT162b2-vaccinated individuals contracted infections after the first two doses. The main finding is that neither anti-RBD IgG nor NAb levels measured at day 30 post-vaccination can be used as predictors of breakthrough infections (BI). Therefore, the levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detected shortly after vaccination are not the pivotal factors involved in antiviral protection, and other characteristics must be considered in understanding protection against infection. Furthermore, the levels of anti-RBD and NAbs followed a very similar pattern, with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.96. This robust correlation would justify ceasing the quantification of NAbs, as the information provided by both determinations is highly similar. This optimization would help allocate resources more efficiently and speed up the determination of individuals’ humoral immunity status.

Yu Xu, You-peng Xu, Qiang Wang et al.

Suzhou City, located in the Yangtze River Delta in China, is prone to flooding due to a complex combination of natural factors, including its monsoon climate, low elevation, and tidally influenced position, as well as intensive human activities. The Large Encirclement Flood Control Project (LEFCP) was launched to cope with serious floods in the urban area. This project changed the spatiotemporal pattern of flood processes and caused spatial diversion of floods from the urban area to the outskirts of the city. Therefore, this study developed a distributed flood simulation model in order to understand this transition of flood processes. The results revealed that the LEFCP effectively protected the urban areas from floods, but the present scheduling schemes resulted in the spatial diversion of floods to the outskirts of the city. With rainstorm frequencies of 10.0% to 0.5%, the water level differences between two representative water level stations (Miduqiao (MDQ) and Fengqiao (FQ)) located inside and outside the LEFCP area, ranged from 0.75 m to 0.24 m and from 1.80 m to 1.58 m, respectively. In addition, the flood safety margin at MDQ and the duration with the water level exceeding the warning water level at FQ ranged from 0.95 m to 0.43 m and from 4 h to 22 h, respectively. Rational scheduling schemes for the hydraulic facilities of the LEFCP in extreme precipitation cases were developed according to flood simulations under seven scheduling scenarios. This helps to regulate the spatial flood diversion caused by the LEFCP during extreme precipitation.

Maria Ioana Telecan, Petru Lucian Curseu, Claudia Lenuta Rus

Purpose – We grounded this study in the Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing (TMGT) meta-theoretical framework to disentangle the costs and benefits associated with workplace friendship in a military setting. Design/methodology/approach – We collected data cross-sectionally through self-reports from 287 employees from the Romanian Air Force. Findings – The number of friends had an inverted U-shaped association with perceived social support. Our results show that as the number of friends increases from 9 to 10, so does the social support. However, as the number of friends further increases above 10, social support tends to decrease rather than increase. Furthermore, we found that social support and all dimensions of mental well-being (emotional, social and psychological well-being) were positively associated. Moreover, social support mediated the relationship between the number of friends and the three dimensions of mental well-being. Research limitations/implications – Our findings can help human resources policies in military organizations foster an organizational climate that cultivates friendship ties between employees, which is crucial for their social support and overall mental well-being. Originality/value – This work provides additional information about the specific mechanisms through which the effects of workplace friendships on mental well-being occur.

Philippe C. Baveye

Journal and book editors in most disciplines are faced with a flood of meta-analyses, which critical reviews have shown are not always of sufficient quality. In the short run, editors could give targeted instructions to authors and make specific recommendations to reviewers to ensure that not only meta-analyses but also research syntheses more broadly, published under their watch, meet acceptable publication standards. In order to achieve satisfactory improvements in the long run, editors should foster fundamental changes in the way the publication of negative and non-significant results is handled.

Xia Liang, Ruhao Zhang, Shuyun Wang et al.

Objective To reveal the characteristics, development trend and potential opportunities of China–ASEAN collaboration in the medical and health field based on bibliometrics. Methods Scopus and International Center for the Study of Research Lab (ICSR Lab) was used to analyze the scale, collaboration network and distribution, impact of cooperative papers, collaboration dominance and evolution of the literature on China–ASEAN medical and health collaboration in the Scopus database from 1992 to 2022. Results From 1992 to 2022, 19,764 articles on medical and health collaboration between China and ASEAN were filtered for analysis. The number of China–ASEAN collaborations has shown a clear upward trend over the years, indicating a gradually closer and improved collaboration relationship overall. The institutional collaboration network between China and ASEAN countries was obviously clustered, and the network connectivity was limited. The substantial differences between the median and mean values of citation impact of China–ASEAN medical and health research collaboration reflected that the collaboration was ‘less’ but ‘better’. The dominance share of collaboration between China and the main ASEAN countries was fluctuating upward and has become more and more stable after 2004. Most of the China–ASEAN collaboration focused on their own characteristic research topics. In recent years, collaboration in infectious diseases and public health had expanded significantly, while other research topics had maintained in a complementary development trend. Conclusion Collaboration between China and ASEAN in the medical and health field has exhibited a progressively closer relationship, and the trend of complementary research has remained stable. However, there are still areas of concern, including the limited scale of collaboration, narrow scope of participation and weak dominance.

C. Zucchella, Angela Federico, Alice Martini et al.

Yucheng Liu, Lawrence Ong, Phee Lep Yeoh et al.

Information leakage to a guessing adversary in index coding is studied, where some messages in the system are sensitive and others are not. The non-sensitive messages can be used by the server like secret keys to mitigate leakage of the sensitive messages to the adversary. We construct a deterministic linear coding scheme, developed from the rank minimization method based on fitting matrices (Bar-Yossef et al. 2011). The linear scheme leads to a novel upper bound on the optimal information leakage rate, which is proved to be tight over all deterministic scalar linear codes. We also derive a converse result from a graph-theoretic perspective, which holds in general over all deterministic and stochastic coding schemes.

Suzanne Mistretta

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash ABSTRACT As English is the predominant language of research protocols in the United States, non-English speaking subjects face language barriers during clinical trial enrollment. Federal regulation 45 C.F.R. 46 requires that a research subject receive information about a clinical trial “in language understandable to the subject or the legally authorized representative." A researcher may enroll a subject using short-form consent when a long-form translation in the subject’s native language is not available. However, the abbreviated short form does not adequately inform the subject of the study’s purpose and potential risks. United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leaders should amend federal guidance to provide specific details on obtaining proper informed consent when there is a language barrier. The code of federal regulations should also establish a standard for quality translation services and interpreters. This paper will review current federal regulations and draft policy, analyze literature describing hospital experiences, and discuss non-compliance areas. This author recommends an amendment to federal policy, which is important because it helps ensure the rights of study participants under the principle of justice. INTRODUCTION As English is the predominant language of research protocols in the United States, non-English speaking subjects face language barriers during clinical trial enrollment. Law requires that a research subject should receive information about a clinical trial “inlanguage understandable to the subject or the legally authorized representative.”[1]This law states that a researcher may enroll a subject using a “short-form” consent when a “long-form” translation in the subject’s native language is not available.[2]However, the abbreviated short form does not adequately inform the subject of the study’s purpose and potential risks. Furthermore, the law does not outline a standard for quality translators. United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) leaders should amend federal guidance to provide specific details on obtaining proper informed consent when there is a language barrier.[3]The Code of Federal Regulations should also establish a standard for quality translation services and interpreters. This paper will review current federal regulations and draft policy, analyze literature describing hospital experiences, and discuss non-compliance areas. I. Draft Guidance In 1995, HHS issued a policy memo clarifying the informed consent process for individuals who do not speak English.[4]The policy states that the witness required for the signing of consent documents should be fluent in both languages and that the study team should issue a translated short form.[5]The guidance still does not require an official translator in the short-form process. However, if used, the translator may serve as witness as well.[6]The policy does not mention the translator’s language proficiency requirements or whether the institution must provide the translator.[7] In 2014, HHS issued draft guidance to expand upon the requirements for informed consent. Per its disclaimer, the guidance is non-binding and not intended for implementation.[8]First, the guidance attempts to clarify the phrase “language understandable”, by adding “the information presented to potential subjects is in a language, and at a level they can comprehend, including an explanation of scientific and medical terms.”[9]The draft guidance also notes that all potential research subjects needing translation might have a low level of health literacy and education. Suppose the research subjects expect a non-English speaking group of participants for enrollment. In that case, the guidance suggests that the researchers provide a long-form translation of study materials before an institutional review board (IRB) initial review of the “appropriately translated consent documents (i.e., either a long form or a short  form with written summary).”[10]To satisfy the guidance, researchers would need to provide multiple translations of the same document as the study progresses and the IRB proposes edits to the long-form English document. Because translating the informed consent forms is costly and time-consuming, having a long form available is not always feasible or practical. Foreseeing this problem, HHS outlined three steps for what to do when a subject’s language is not expected or planned for in the population. First, the guidance suggests that the investigator “determine that there is Sufficient Justification to Enroll the Subject Without Using a Translated Long-form to Document the Subject’s Informed Consent.”[11]Although this provision protects non-English-speaking subjects from uninformed consent, it adds a barrier to enrollment. The investigator must justify the registration of the individual based on the individual’s language. The justification process may delay enrollment, placing individuals at a disadvantage based on their language. If the researcher can adequately justify and use the short-form consent process, the investigator must then translate the long-form consent. After the subject starts participating in research, the investigator then provides the long-form translated document. II. Short Form and Noncompliance Vagueness in the federal regulations has caused disparate interpretation among institutions, leading to noncompliance.[12]Each institution has its own interpretation of 45 CFR 46, also known as the Common Rule, which protects vulnerable research subjects and provides research teams with a short-form template.[13]As noted above, the regulations do not require a translator, nor do they specify the translator’s specific role or qualifications.[14]HHS has not made it clear whether the witness may be a member of the study team or related to the patient, or whether the witness providing interpretation must be independent. Furthermore, it is not clear if the witness is overseeing merely the signing of the document or serving as a witness to the informed consent process.[15]In review of noncompliance areas, the institution should clarify the use of short-form consent, the witness’s role, and impose qualification requirements for translators.[16]Each institution will have its own resources and interpretations. Therefore, non-English speakers will find different translation quality across many research institutions. An individual may receive a different research experience and quality of language resources based on location and the degree to which their language was expected by the research team. This barrier is an implicit form of discrimination and violates the principle of justice. III. Equitable Selection of Subjects Minority populations are underrepresented in research due to a lack of cultural competence and language barriers to subject recruitment.[17]Paradoxically, minority populations are most impacted by many of the diseases for which there are clinical trials.[18]In 2015, researchers surveyed 10,000 studies registered on clinicaltrials.gov.[19]The authors found, “English fluency requirements have been increasing over time, from 1.7% of trials having such requirements before 2000 to 9.0% after 2010.”[20]Researchers who often exclude non-English speaking ethnic minorities claim that diversity may impact whether the studied intervention’s effect is noticed.[21]This manipulation of the subject population goes against the principle of justice outlined in the Belmont Report. Of 14,367 clinical research studies registered on clinicaltrials.gov between 2010 and 2020, 18.98 percent required subjects to be fluent in English.[22]Regulations and institutions do not compel researchers to include non-English speaking subjects; the researcher is not breaking any federal regulations by excluding them. From an ethical standpoint, the deliberate exclusion based on an inability to read/write in English is inequitable and unjust. In 2018, researchers reviewed enrollment rates and staff competency for subject enrollment.[23]Researchers found low levels of cultural competency among research staff and a misunderstanding of the federal regulations.[24]In 2005, researchers reviewed the importance of cultural competency training for healthcare providers.[25]Authors synthesized data based on 34 programs and found that competency programs improved provider “knowledge, attitudes, and skills, and patients’ ratings of care.”[26]However, cultural competency programs did not improve or impact patient compliance and health outcomes.[27]Authors requested more research to evaluate cultural training’s impact on researcher bias and attitudes toward subject inclusion.[28] IV. Institutional Barriers In 2018, researchers conducted a review of approximately 1,500 clinical trials at Boston Children’s Hospital and its Anesthesia Research Unit to identify enrollment barriers for non-English-speaking subjects.[29]The researchers discovered that the number of potential non-English speaking subjects increased, while the number of studies approved to enroll non-English speaking subjects did not grow at the same rate.[30]Of 1,492 studies that were open to enrollment between 2011 and 2016, 714 did not allow non-English speaking subjects.[31]The institution cited six barriers to enrollment that precluded these minority-language populations (Table 1).[32] The barriers described in Categories 1, 3, and 5 are due to a lack of translators, funding, or validated translated material. Categories 2, 4, and 6 may reflect an implicit bias on the institution’s part and suggest a lack of cultural understanding. Some researchers[33]called on the institution to increase cultural awareness and to provide resources to address the effects of the language barrier on enrollment.[34]However, with no set standard on the institutional level, it is up to the researchers to address this discrepancy and uphold the principle of justice. The uneven distribution of resources requires the research subjects to counteract their own language barrier. In many clinical cases, as time is of the essence, a person may need to seek several research options before participating in their desired study. Until each institution discloses its barriers and noncompliance, we have no way of knowing the full extent of this problem. V. Policy Recommendations The current HHS regulations and draft guidance are not sufficient to resolve implicit bias and logistical problems that arise when enrolling non-English speaking subjects. HHS should take the following actions. First, HHS should translate short-form consent forms for the most common languages in the US. HHS should then publish the translated documents for use as a template on its website for centers that lack adequate translation resources. Second, HHS should create a federal database of qualified translators who meet language proficiency benchmarks established by HHS. Individuals listed on this database should provide written translation of study materials and verbal translations during the consent process. The database should contain individuals affiliated and unaffiliated with an institution to track credentials and verify language proficiency. Third, HHS should create a federal fund for institutions to draw from when they need resources for long-form translations or translators. HHS should amend the Common Rule to add specificity. It should define the role of the witness in the short-form consent process to eliminate unequal interpretations across study sites. Second, it should mandate that the IRB obtain strong justification for the exclusion of subjects based on English-fluency criteria. Third, it should recommend cultural competency programs for investigators at the institutional level. VI. Limitations The proposed actions and policy may face objections from the federal government and industry. At the federal level, the government may not have the resources or funding needed to establish a nationwide registry of translators or quality check for fluency. HHS may need to develop a separate office to track these credentials and select a proficiency baseline. Perhaps an independent organization should be contracted by the government to perform these quality checks on a regional basis and call on the states to help fund the project. Also, the federal government may not have adequate resources to create a national fund for institutional-level translation services. One solution may be to include a flat rate of translation in the site budget during start-up activities. The government would be responsible for translations for government-sponsored research when the institution cannot feasibly provide a translation. Research centers can pull from the translator database for institutional studies if they cannot translate in-house. For pharmaceutical corporation-led protocols, industry sponsors may not appreciate the added cost of translation. However, by mandating the fee, the government would eliminate systemic discrimination based on English fluency. VII. Support Researchers should show support for more specific guidance on the institutional level, granted they receive adequate resources to meet the regulations. By clarifying the use of a translator and the role of a witness, and establishing common resources, every institution will benefit. Furthermore, it is crucial to hold institutions accountable for supporting cultural competency initiatives. These programs do not need to be intensive or expensive; there are many resources available to the public on websites such as YouTube. Institutions should make cultural competency programming a mandatory requirement for staff training during the orientation and continuing education. Encouraging cultural competency programs will improve provider attitudes and subject treatment. CONCLUSION Federal regulations do not require the use of resources when enrolling a subject who is non-English speaking, nor do they mandate the inclusion of “unexpected” populations based on language. Lack of clarity and specificity on the federal level places the onus of responsibility on the institution to mitigate language barriers. The lack of universal policy leads to an unequal research experience among institutions and locations. Furthermore, clinical trial sponsors may manipulate data based on limiting the study population and engaging in studies that overly represent homogeneous populations. Influencing the study population will skew results and will not lead to generalizable knowledge. To uphold the principle of justice, the research community must gather its resources to support non-English speaking subjects who wish to participate in research. [1]“45 C.F.R. 46 FAQs,” 45 C.F.R. §46.116 (a)(3), Office for Human Research Protections, last modified 2018, https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/guidance/faq/45-cfr-46/index.html#:~:text=Basic%20regulations%20governing%20the%20protection,were%20first%20published%20in%201974. [2]Office for Human Research Protections, “45 C.F.R. 46 FAQs.” [3]“Protection of Human Subjects, 45 C.F.R.§ 46,” United States Department of Health and Human Services, last modified 2018, https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=83cd09e1c0f5c6937cd9d7513160fc3f&pitd=20180719&n=pt45.1.46&r=PART&ty=HTML. [4]Office for Human Research Protections, 45 C.F.R. §46.117(b)(2), “45 C.F.R. 46 FAQs.”  [5]The researcher can orally present the information to the subject or LAR, with a witness present, and provide a short-form of consent with a brief written summary of the research. [6]“Informed Consent of Subjects Who Do Not Speak English,” Office for Human Research Protections, last modified February 25, 2016, https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/guidance/obtaining-and-documenting-infomed-consent-non-english-speakers/index.html. [7]Lad, Pramod M., and Rebecca Dahl. "Overcoming Language Barriers in the Informed Consent Process: Regulatory and Compliance Issues With the use of the ‘Short Form.’” Accountability in Research 21, no. 5 (2014): 315-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2013.848801. [8]“Informed Consent Information Sheet Guidance for IRBs, Clinical Investigators, and Sponsors Draft Guidance,” Office of the Commissioner, last modified 2014, https://www.fda.gov/media/88915/download. [9]Office of the Commissioner, “Informed Consent Information Sheet Guidance.” [10]Office of the Commissioner, “Informed Consent Information Sheet Guidance.” [11]Office of the Commissioner, “Informed Consent Information Sheet Guidance.” [12]Lad and Dahl, “Regulatory and Compliance Issues.” [13]Lad and Dahl, “Regulatory and Compliance Issues.” [14]Lad and Dahl, “Regulatory and Compliance Issues.” [15]Lad and Dahl, “Regulatory and Compliance Issues.” [16]Lad and Dahl, “Regulatory and Compliance Issues.” [17]Staples, Jeanine N. et al., "Language as a Barrier to Cancer Clinical Trial Accrual: Assessing Consenting Team Knowledge and Practices for Cancer Clinical Trial Consent Among Low English Fluency Patients." Applied Cancer Research 38, no. 1 (2018): 1-7.https://doi.org/10.1186/s41241-018-0065-9. [18]Staples et al., “Language as a Barrier.” [19]Egleston, Brian L. et al., "Characteristics of Clinical Trials That Require Participants to be Fluent in English." Clinical Trials 12, no. 6 (2015): 618-626.https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774515592881. [20]Egleston et al., “Characteristics of Clinical Trials.” [21]Egleston et al., “Characteristics of Clinical Trials.” [22]Muthukumar AV, Morrell W, Bierer BE (2021) Evaluating the frequency of English language requirements in clinical trial eligibility criteria: A systematic analysis using ClinicalTrials.gov. PLoS Med 18(9): e1003758. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003758 https://doi.org/10.1080/08989620600654043. [23]Staples et al., “Language as a Barrier.” [24]Staples et al., “Language as a Barrier.” [25]Beach, Mary Catherine et al., "Cultural Competency: A Systematic Review of Health Care Provider Educational Interventions." Medical Care 43, no. 4 (2005): 356. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mlr.0000156861.58905.96. [26]Beach et al., “Cultural Competence,” 8. [27]Beach et al., “Cultural Competence,” 8. [28]Beach et al., “Cultural Competence,” 8. [29]Bernier, Rachel et al., "Inclusion of Non‐English‐Speaking Patients in Research: A Single Institution Experience." Pediatric Anesthesia 28, no. 5 (2018): 415-420. https://doi.org/10.1111/pan.13363. [30]Bernier et al., “Inclusion of Non-English-Speaking Patients.” [31]Bernier et al., “Inclusion of Non-English-Speaking Patients.” [32]Bernier et al., “Inclusion of Non-English-Speaking Patients.” [33]Lad and Dahl, “Regulatory and Compliance Issues.” [34]Bernier et al., “Inclusion of Non-English-Speaking Patients.”

K. Balog, Tom Kenter

Knowledge graphs, organizing structured information about entities, and their attributes and relationships, are ubiquitous today. Entities, in this context, are usually taken to be anyone or anything considered to be globally important. This, however, rules out many entities people interact with on a daily basis. In this position paper, we present the concept of personal knowledge graphs: resources of structured information about entities personally related to its user, including the ones that might not be globally important. We discuss key aspects that separate them for general knowledge graphs, identify the main challenges involved in constructing and using them, and define a research agenda.

Sandra Aya Enimil

Library Licensing: A Manual for Busy Librarians strives to help library staff comprehend library licenses for content and materials. It targets university librarians, but librarians who deal with licenses and agreements in other types of libraries will benefit from the information shared in this work. The book, written by two people (including one with a law degree) with experience at academic institutions, is a quick and straightforward read for librarians who may be new to reviewing contracts and provides thoughtful tips to more seasoned library professionals.

Santiago Gil, Germán D. Zapata-Madrigal, Rodolfo García-Sierra

The electrical industry is undergoing a deep digital transformation towards the consolidation of smart grids, which requires a high demand of data and information systems involved in the processes. Open data initiatives, which have been focused on open governance to a great extent, generate positive impacts on society and the economy in terms of easy access to public resources, agility, and transparency. These initiatives can also be adopted in the electrical industry (i.e., power, electrical, and energy systems) for customer engagement, collaboration with other industries, and reaching consensus. This study proposes the implementation of an open data solution for the electrical industry through the deployment of a data hub that offers digital services for smart city applications and the integration of the X-Road system to improve the security and interoperability of open data. This initiative aims to promote a wider adoption of open data in the electrical industry and prepare the latter for fully connected and collaborative digital ecosystems in smart cities, industries, and governments. This study also proposes an open data architecture for the interoperability of the electrical industry with other digital industries (through a Smart City Hub and the adoption of 5G technology), and it reports some relevant results and major findings in this regard. This paper highlights the benefits of promoting open data and technological strategies for digitized electrical systems while considering humans an essential factor. Finally, it discusses the pros and cons of the integration of X-Road with the electrical industry under the concept of smart grids for data exchange and potential applications.

L. Banchi, S. Braunstein, S. Pirandola

We derive a computable analytical formula for the quantum fidelity between two arbitrary multimode Gaussian states which is simply expressed in terms of their first- and second-order statistical moments. We also show how such a formula can be written in terms of symplectic invariants and used to derive closed forms for a variety of basic quantities and tools, such as the Bures metric, the quantum Fisher information, and various fidelity-based bounds. Our result can be used to extend the study of continuous-variable protocols, such as quantum teleportation and cloning, beyond the current one-mode or two-mode analyses, and paves the way to solve general problems in quantum metrology and quantum hypothesis testing with arbitrary multimode Gaussian resources.

Tobias Olsson, Ulli Samuelsson, Dino Viscovi

Ritam Dutt, Moumita Basu, Kripabandhu Ghosh et al.

During a disaster event, two types of information that are especially useful for coordinating relief operations are needs and availabilities of resources (e.g., food, water, medicines) in the affected region. Information posted on microblogging sites is increasingly being used for assisting post-disaster relief operations. In this context, two practical challenges are (i)~to identify tweets that inform about resource needs and availabilities (termed as need-tweets and availability-tweets respectively), and (ii)~to automatically match needs with appropriate availabilities. While several works have addressed the first problem, there has been little work on automatically matching needs with availabilities. The few prior works that attempted matching only considered the resources, and no attempt has been made to understand other aspects of needs/availabilities that are essential for matching in practice. In this work, we develop a methodology for understanding five important aspects of need-tweets and availability-tweets, including what resource and what quantity is needed/available, the geographical location of the need/availability, and who needs / is providing the resource. Understanding these aspects helps us to address the need-availability matching problem considering not only the resources, but also other factors such as the geographical proximity between the need and the availability. To our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to develop methods for understanding the semantics of need-tweets and availability-tweets. We also develop a novel methodology for matching need-tweets with availability-tweets, considering both resource similarity and geographical proximity. Experiments on two datasets corresponding to two disaster events, demonstrate that our proposed methods perform substantially better matching than those in prior works.

He Chen, Yifan Gu, Soung-Chang Liew

As the most well-known application of the Internet of Things (IoT), remote monitoring is now pervasive. In these monitoring applications, information usually has a higher value when it is fresher. A new metric, termed the age of information (AoI), has recently been proposed to quantify the information freshness in various IoT applications. This paper concentrates on the design and analysis of age-oriented random access for massive IoT networks. Specifically, we devise a new stationary threshold-based age-dependent random access (ADRA) protocol, in which each IoT device accesses the channel with a certain probability only when its instantaneous AoI exceeds a predetermined threshold. We manage to evaluate the average AoI of the proposed ADRA protocol mathematically by decoupling the tangled AoI evolution of multiple IoT devices and modeling the decoupled AoI evolution of each device as a Discrete-Time Markov Chain. Simulation results validate our theoretical analysis and affirm the superior age performance of the proposed ADRA protocol over the state-of-the-art age-oriented random access schemes.

Margit R. Wilhelm, Margit R. Wilhelm, Bryan A. Black et al.

In this study we develop a 32-year (1982–2013) otolith biochronology of the commercially important deepwater hake Merluccius paradoxus in the northern Benguela, Namibia. Mean annual growth (mm) calculated from 140 thin-sectioned M. paradoxus otoliths were compared with change in mean length at age 3 to age 4 determined from Namibian whole-otolith-read age-length keys (ALKs). Annual growth rates calculated from the two methods (overlapping 2000–2013) were strongly positively correlated (ρ = 0.730, n = 14, p < 0.01). This indirectly validated annual age determination of M. paradoxus, the accuracy of otolith chronologies, and the ability of ALKs to capture annual variability in fish growth. Annual M. paradoxus growth rates were significantly positively correlated with the July–September upwelling index 1982–2013 at 30°S, (ρ = 0.414, n = 32, p < 0.05) and positively correlated with August mean chlorophyll-a concentrations (as indicator for primary production) 2002–2013 in the 28–30°S area (ρ = 0.734, n = 12, p < 0.01). Annual M. paradoxus growth rates significantly negatively correlated with October (austral spring) sea surface temperatures in the 24–28°S area (ρ = −0.381, n = 32, p < 0.05). This Orange-River Namaqua upwelling cell corresponds to the area where juvenile and young adult M. paradoxus live, suggesting growth rate strongly responds to local forcing. We also determined that mean length-at-age 3 calculated from ALKs (current and literature) significantly increased from 1977 through 2016 at 0.075 cm.year–1 (t = 3.04, df = 41, p = 0.004), while length-at-age 8 significantly decreased at 0.25 cm.year–1 (t = −3.59, df = 30, p = 0.001). Both trends may indicate fisheries-induced adaptive changes. M. paradoxus occurring at >300 m bottom depth, are thus strongly influenced by fisheries. As an upper-level demersal predator, this species integrates signals throughout the food web to provide a unique “view from the top” of long-term changes in the northern Benguela upwelling system. These results provide background ranges of growth variability and context for what will likely be negative impacts of predicted decreases in future upwelling.

Earl Hunt

Ankit Pensia, Varun Jog, Po-Ling Loh

We propose a novel strategy for extracting features in supervised learning that can be used to construct a classifier which is more robust to small perturbations in the input space. Our method builds upon the idea of the information bottleneck by introducing an additional penalty term that encourages the Fisher information of the extracted features to be small, when parametrized by the inputs. By tuning the regularization parameter, we can explicitly trade off the opposing desiderata of robustness and accuracy when constructing a classifier. We derive the optimal solution to the robust information bottleneck when the inputs and outputs are jointly Gaussian, proving that the optimally robust features are also jointly Gaussian in that setting. Furthermore, we propose a method for optimizing a variational bound on the robust information bottleneck objective in general settings using stochastic gradient descent, which may be implemented efficiently in neural networks. Our experimental results for synthetic and real data sets show that the proposed feature extraction method indeed produces classifiers with increased robustness to perturbations.