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The current study explored the experiences of Asian International Students (AISs) in terms of mental health, disclosure and help-seeking within Higher Education in Scotland, UK. A qualitative study using individual semi-structured interviews with AISs (n = 20) was used and an inductive thematic approach to analysis was conducted. Three major themes were developed: (1) Negative beliefs, stigma and fear of judgment, (2) Adaptation and acculturation difficulties and (3) Barriers in communication, social disconnection and loneliness. Supporting AISs involves challenging negative judgements surrounding mental health, increasing mental health literacy and addressing barriers that may inhibit disclosure and help-seeking behaviour. The need for culturally sensitive mental health practitioners and awareness of diverse understandings of mental health issues is essential to improving support for AISs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urgency to reduce knife carrying has been recognised by police services within Scotland and has been addressed by initiatives such as the sharing of knife seizure images on media outlets. This study sought to explore young peoples' views on the use of knife seizure images as a deterrent to carrying knives by using comparative individual interviews (N = 20). Three themes were discovered: (1) negative reactions towards images of seized knives, (2) images of knives may encourage rather than deter knife carrying, and (3) reinforcement of existing beliefs, stereotypes and stigma. These findings highlight the limitations of using knife seizure images as a deterrent and the importance of involving young people in developing preventative and non-discriminatory approaches to tackling knife crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Visual assessment, while the primary method for pigmentation and erythema evaluation in clinical practice, is subjective, time-consuming, and may lead to variability in observations among clinicians. Objective and quantitative techniques are required for a precise evaluation of the disease's severity and the treatment's efficacy. This research examines the precision and utility of a newly developed skin imaging system in assessing pigmentation and erythema. Sixty participants were recruited, and their facial images were analyzed with the new OBSERV 520 x skin imaging system, compared to DERMACATCH for regional analysis and VISIA for full-face examination. The degree of skin pigmentation was clinically graded using the MASI scores evaluated by dermatologists. The data revealed positive correlations between the novel skin imaging system and the two conventional instruments in quantifying pigmentation and erythema, whether in regional or full-face analysis. Furthermore, the new skin imaging system positively correlated with the clinical MASI scores (r = 0.4314, P

The fragmented design of intelligent transportation systems creates isolated intelligent systems. Resource competition and information gaps are fierce and widespread, worsening traffic issues and degrading overall service levels. Therefore, empowered by advanced technologies, an evolution toward an autonomous transportation system (ATS) is observed. This evolution aims to develop a collaborative and sustainable ecosystem, prompting interoperability within the cloud-edge-device continuum. It can, accordingly, dismantle internal resource barriers and achieve a systematic balance between demand and supply with less human intervention. Despite the promising vision of an ATS, it encounters three key challenges: disparate data, deficient models, and conflicting interests in supporting autonomous and personalized mobility. Hence, as an innovative solution, a trustworthy, private, and equal-serving framework called TPE is designed. It seamlessly integrates blockchain, federated learning, and large-scale models to deploy a trustworthy operating environment, process private data for globally shareable knowledge, and develop a foundation model for personalized adaptation, respectively. Consequently, ATSs empowered by TPE can serve diverse user groups both privately and equally.

Reconfigurable metasurface, also known as Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS), with its flexible beamforming, low-cost, and easy industrial deployment characteristics, presents many interesting solutions in wireless application scenarios. This paper presents a sophisticated reconfigurable metasurface architecture that introduces an advanced concept of flexible full-array space-time wavefront manipulation with enhanced dynamic capabilities. The practical 2-bit phase-shifting unit cell on the RIS is distinguished by its ability to maintain four stable phase states, each with 90° differences, and features an insertion loss of less than 0.6 dB across a bandwidth of 200 MHz. All reconfigurable unit cells are equipped with meticulously designed control circuits, governed by an intelligent core composed of multiple Micro-Controller Units (MCUs), enabling rapid control response across the entire RIS array. Owing to the capability of each unit cell on the metasurface to independently switch states, the entire RIS is not limited to controlling general beams with specific directional patterns but also generates beams with more complex structures, including multi-focus 3D spot beams and vortex beams. This development substantially broadens its applicability across various industrial wireless transmission scenarios. Moreover, by leveraging the rapid-respond space-time coding and the full-array independent programmability of the RIS prototyping operating at 10.7 GHz, we have demonstrated that: 1) The implementation of 3D spot beams scanning facilitates dynamic beam tracking and real-time communication under the indoor near-field scenario; 2) The rapid wavefront rotation of vortex beams enables precise modulation of signals within the Doppler domain, showcasing an innovative approach to wireless signal manipulation; 3) The beam steering experiments for blocking users under outdoor far-field scenarios, verifying the beamforming capability of the RIS board.

The positioning accuracy of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted indoor positioning system (IPS) can be improved by developing a fingerprinting database for different RIS configurations. Every RIS configuration generates a different radio map of the indoor environment such that the variations in the received power are used to localize unknown receivers. However, creating a diverse fingerprinting database is challenging and time consuming. To this end, we compare three end-to-end (E2E) propagation modeling techniques that include a full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulator-based model (FWS-E2E), and two hybrid models called HYB1-E2E and HYB2-E2E. The FWS-E2E technique models the RIS and the entire indoor environment in a full-wave EM simulator. On the other hand, the hybrid techniques mostly rely on analytical equations while using some important data from the EM simulator. In this paper, we also discuss methods and algorithms to identify useful RIS configurations having the potential to generate diverse radio maps for increasing the positioning accuracy of the IPS. Both hybrid methods significantly reduce the complexity of generating the radio map. Experimental results are also provided to compare the performance of the E2E models.

The concept of the peer-to-peer local energy market (P2P LEM) is no longer novel to the energy community. Yet, its large-scale implementation within the current electricity network remains a complex challenge. One key reason is the lack of understanding of the supplier licensing models in different countries. For instance, in the UK, up to year 2023, a consumer is only allowed to have a single supplier at a time under its single licence supplier model. This directly contradicts the existing P2P trading models that allow a consumer to purchase electricity from multiple sellers within the local market. Given this context, this article conducts a review of recent literature and government policies in different countries on the P2P LEM and identifies the barriers behind the lack of large-scale P2P trading implementation in today’s electricity markets. We explain how these barriers can be overcome by engaging prosumers in traditional and private distribution networks through either licensed or license-exempt suppliers. Particularly, we discuss six P2P LEM frameworks that can be utilised to address the supplier licensing issue. Finally, this review presents a summary of risks, and recommendations to aid the regulatory framework to implement P2P LEM.

The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) has the potential to significantly improve communication reliability, efficiency, and manageability in transportation systems. Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are particularly valuable for sustaining ITS features in dynamic, high-density environments. Integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) into modern transportation systems can further enhance ITS capabilities by providing real-time data and connectivity. Challenges like insufficient spectrum utilization and increased end-to-end latency in single-radio data transmission systems have led to the development of advanced techniques such as dual-radio multi-channel systems. However, these approaches often compromise network performance due to interference. To address these limitations, this paper proposes drone-assisted cooperative routing (DACR), incorporating IoT elements for improved connectivity and data exchange. Performance evaluation, based on comparative analysis with existing state-of-the-art schemes, indicates that the proposed DACR outperforms in packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, and control message overhead. DACR demonstrates a 22% and 52% reduction in control message overhead compared to U2RV and CRRA, a 23% improvement in ETE delay over U2RV, a 33% improvement over CRRA, and a 14.5% and 44% increase in PDR, respectively.

Unprecedented growth in wireless data traffic, and ever-increasing demand for highly secured, and low-latency wireless communication has motivated the research community to move towards sixth-generation (6G) technology, where networks can cater to the rising need for ubiquitous secure wireless connectivity. One of the promising technologies for 6G wireless communication is the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) concept that is proposed to successfully deal with increasing security threats by smartly controlling the wireless channel conditions. This survey paper presents a detailed literature review on RIS-assisted physical layer security (PLS) for next-generation wireless communications. Firstly, we briefly discuss the PLS concept, its importance, the PLS performance metrics, and its applicability in different wireless networks. Next, we discuss the applications of RIS in the 6G scenario. Then, a detailed and systematic classification of the various RIS-assisted wireless system topologies exhibiting multiple scenarios, system models, channel fading models, performance metrics and objectives is done. The existing state-of-art approaches for PLS such as secret key generation (SKG), optimization algorithms, namely semidefinite relaxation-successive convex approximation (SDR-SCA) to optimize RIS coefficients, and optimal placement of RIS units are discussed for single-input single-output (SISO) case. For multiple-input single-output (MISO) case, PLS strategies such as inducing artificial noise (AN), optimization algorithms, alternating optimization (AO), machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), and reflect matrices are discussed. Similarly, for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) setup, block coordinate descent (BCD) and AN induction are some of the PLS methods used to analyze the secrecy. Lastly, we present some of the technical challenges and future directions based on the survey.

In this paper, we consider a stacked intelligent metasurface (SIM) with the ability to perform beamforming in the electromagnetic (EM) wave domain. We develop a path-loss model that allows us to compute the received power of the signal after passing through the SIM. Based on the proposed path-loss model, we formulate an optimization problem to maximize the power at a desired target location in space. We develop a gradient ascent algorithm that can be applied when the phases of the meta-atoms of the SIM can be continuously varied. Also, we develop an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm for the same problem when the meta-atoms can only apply discrete phase shifts. In addition, we formulate an optimization problem whose objective is to produce a given target radiation pattern on a 2D plane located at a certain distance from the center of the SIM. The corresponding algorithms for the continuous and discrete values for the transmission coefficients applied by the SIM are provided. We show that, thanks to the use of multiple layers, complex target radiation patterns in a 2D plane are easily generated. For continuous-valued transmission coefficients, more than 90% of the radiated power is concentrated at the desired points with only three layers. For discrete-valued transmission coefficients with two phase shifts, we show, on the other hand, that nine layers are required to concentrate 90% of the power towards the desired locations. Compared to a single-layer SIM, notably, the power ratio increases by almost 50% by using only three layers.