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The growth of internet-of-things (IoT) inspired use cases in different run of the mill environments such as cities, industries, healthcare, agriculture, and transportation, has led to a greater desire for safer IoT data gathering and storage. However, securing IoT is challenging due to form-factor, complexity, energy, and connectivity limitations. Conventional coding-based security techniques are unsuitable for ultra-reliable low-latency and energy-efficient communication in IoT. Numerous research studies on physical layer security (PLS) techniques for fifth generation (5G) have emerged recently, but not all of the solutions can be used in IoT networks due to complexity limitations. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is billed as a possible technology to solve connectivity and latency requirements in IoT. In this study, we exploit the power allocation characteristics of NOMA to enhance security in a downlink deviceto-device (D2D) decode and forward (DF) IoT network infiltrated by an eavesdropper. Our performance metric of choice is the secrecy outage probability (SOP). We formulate exact SOP results for different users. Simulation results demonstrate the positive impact of NOMA on SOP in a D2D IoT-NOMA network.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are promising techniques to develop next-generation wireless systems. While RIS has huge potential to create massive device connectivity, NOMA exhibits its spectrum efficient communication among multiple access approaches. RIS is a passive device made up of low-cost meta-surfaces which can control the propagation of radio waves, and it is easily deployable in lots of applications in the Internet of Things. The full-duplex nature of RIS has also been a major reason for its consideration of major emerging and trending technologies. In this paper, we aim to investigate the secrecy performance of the RIS-NOMA-assisted Internet of Things (IoT) systems in the presence of two legitimate users who belong to a cluster, and those devices are associated with the existence of an eavesdropper situated close to such a cluster. This paper considers the devices in the presence of RIS and an eavesdropper. As main performance metrics, the closed-form expressions for secrecy outage probability (SOP) and strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) are derived to evaluate the performance of legitimate users. Simulations are performed in support of the Monte-Carlo method, and the obtained results show that in most of the cases, the number of meta-surfaces in RIS and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels at the source also plays a pivotal role in influencing the secure performance of the system.

In this paper, we consider the impact of imperfect channel state information (CSI) on outage probability of users in an ambient backscatter (AB) enabled nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network. In our proposed scheme, a source node communicates with two destinations via a radio frequency-powered device. Such device is assume with ability of backscattering the signals from the base station. We derive expressions to show the outage probability of main nodes in such system. The analytical expressions for the outage probability are checked with Monte-Carlo simulations. It has been shown that the analytical results match the simulation results. In particular, the user with higher allocated power exhibits its performance better than another 10%-15% when signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the source node is 30 dB.

Achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) is a global requirement that attracts new researchers and regulators. So, the current research investigates the impact of investment on the environment, social, and governance (ESG) activities on the achievement of SDGs of the Chinese manufacturing companies. The current article also examines the mediating impact of organizational effectiveness among the nexus of investment in ESG activities and the achievement of SDGs of the Chinese manufacturing companies. The current research has taken the questionnaires to gather the data and used the smart-PLS to analyze the data. The results exposed that investment in the environment and social activities have a positive impact on the achievement of SDGs. The findings also revealed that the organizational effectiveness significantly mediates among the nexus of investment in the environment and social activities and the achievement of SDGs of the Chinese manufacturing companies. This study provides help to the relevant authorities to achieve the SDGs using the investment in ESG activities.

In this paper, we study uplink-downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems by considering the secure performance at the physical layer. In the considered system model, the base station acts a relay to allow two users at the left side communicate with two users at the right side. By considering imperfect channel state information (CSI), the secure performance need be studied since an eavesdropper wants to overhear signals processed at the downlink. To provide secure performance metric, we derive exact expressions of secrecy outage probability (SOP) and and evaluating the impacts of main parameters on SOP metric. The important finding is that we can achieve the higher secrecy performance at high signal to noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, the numerical results demonstrate that the SOP tends to a constant at high SNR. Finally, our results show that the power allocation factors, target rates are main factors affecting to the secrecy performance of considered uplink-downlink NOMA systems.

As a new energy saving approach for green communications, energy harvesting (EH) could be suitable technique to facilitate massive connections for large number of devices in such networks. The spectrum shortage occurs in huge number of devices which access with small-cell and macro-cell networks. To tackle these challenges, we develop a tractable framework relying on prominent techniques such as non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), antenna selection and energy harvesting. In this paper, we aim at practical scenarios of small cell networks by jointly evaluating capable of interference management and EH. We benefit from transmission approaches including full duplex (FD) and bi-directional transmission to improve the main performance system metrics such as outage probability and throughput. Three useful schemes are explored by considering EH and inter-cell interference. We derive the closed-form and asymptotic expressions for system metrics. We then perform extensive simulations with different system configurations to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed small-cell NOMA systems.

Background and Purpose: The AFFINITY trial (Assessment of Fluoxetine in Stroke Recovery) reported that oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and seizures. After trial medication was ceased at 6 months, survivors were followed to 12 months post-randomization. This preplanned secondary analysis aimed to determine any sustained or delayed effects of fluoxetine at 12 months post-randomization. Methods: AFFINITY was a randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in adults (n=1280) with a clinical diagnosis of stroke in the previous 2 to 15 days and persisting neurological deficit who were recruited at 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (4), and Vietnam (10) between 2013 and 2019. Participants were randomized to oral fluoxetine 20 mg once daily (n=642) or matching placebo (n=638) for 6 months and followed until 12 months after randomization. The primary outcome was function, measured by the modified Rankin Scale, at 6 months. Secondary outcomes for these analyses included measures of the modified Rankin Scale, mood, cognition, overall health status, fatigue, health-related quality of life, and safety at 12 months. Results: Adherence to trial medication was for a mean 167 (SD 48) days and similar between randomized groups. At 12 months, the distribution of modified Rankin Scale categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.76–1.14]; P =0.46). Compared with placebo, patients allocated fluoxetine had fewer recurrent ischemic strokes (14 [2.18%] versus 29 [4.55%]; P =0.02), and no longer had significantly more falls (27 [4.21%] versus 15 [2.35%]; P =0.08), bone fractures (23 [3.58%] versus 11 [1.72%]; P =0.05), or seizures (11 [1.71%] versus 8 [1.25%]; P =0.64) at 12 months. Conclusions: Fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke had no delayed or sustained effect on functional outcome, falls, bone fractures, or seizures at 12 months poststroke. The lower rate of recurrent ischemic stroke in the fluoxetine group is most likely a chance finding. Registration: URL: http://www.anzctr.org.au/ ; Unique identifier: ACTRN12611000774921.

Background: The striped catfish,Pangasionodon hypophthalmus, is one of the most important cultured fish species worldwide. Although genetic management and improvement based on molecular approaches have a high potential, few applications are available due to the lack of genomic resources.Methods and results: We used a draft genome of striped catfish to develop 26 polymorphic DNA microsatellite markers. Markers were validated on 62 individuals from three wild populations. The 26 loci were highly polymorphic, with 7 to 21 alleles per locus for a total of 342 alleles. Null alleles were observed at 6 of the 26 loci. Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) values pointed to a high level of polymorphism (PIC>0.5) at all tested loci. Observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.532 to 0.919 and 0.584 to 0.891, respectively. The Tonlé Sap and Lower Mekong samples were similar and differed from the Kratié sample.Conclusions:The 26 microsatellite markers represent an additional and valuable source for population genetic studies, parentage assignment, the estimation of genetic parameters for broodstock management and marker assisted selection in striped catfish.

Power domain based multiple access scheme is introduced in this paper, namely Non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA). We deploy a wireless network using NOMA together with a wireless power transfer (WPT) scheme for dedicated user over Nakagami-$m$ fading channel. When combined, these promising techniques (NOMA and WPT) improve the system performance in term of ergodic performance at reasonable coefficient of harvested power. However, fixed power allocation factors for each NOMA user can be adjusted at the base station and it further provide performance improvement. We design a new signal frame to deploy a NOMA scheme in WPT which adopts a linear energy harvesting model. The ergodic capacity in such a NOMA network and power allocation factors can be updated frequently in order to achieve a fair distribution among NOMA users. The exact expressions of ergodic capacity for each user is derived. The simulation results show that an agreement between analytic performance and Monte-Carlo simulation can be achieved.

We study the secrecy transmission of uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with single antenna and multi-antenna users in presence of an eavesdropper. Two phases are required for communications during each time frame between the users and the base station in cellular networks. We study the case where an eavesdropper overhears the relay and direct links from the users to the base stations. In terms of the secure performance analysis, we focus on two main metrics including secrecy outage probability (SOP) and strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC) with the assumption that the eavesdropper is able to detect the signals. Analytical closed-form expressions for the SOP and SPSC are derived to evaluate the system secure performance achieved by the proposed schemes. Furthermore, the asymptotic analysis is presented to gain further insights. The analytical and numerical results indicate that the proposed schemes can realize better secrecy performance once we improve the channel condition and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the base station. Our results confirms that the secrecy performance gaps exist among the two users since different power allocation factors are assigned to these users.

Bacillary necrosis is a problematic disease in farming of Mekong striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus). The pathogenic bacterium is Edwardsiella ictaluri, causing numerous white spots in swelled liver, kidney and spleen. An alternative to antibiotic treatment and vaccine is to select for improved genetic resistance to the disease that requires to establish a proper challenge test. Here, four challenge tests of Mekong striped catfish against E. ictaluri are reported proposing 3 days of acclimatization of test fish prior to the challenge, with restricted water level in the test, keeping a temperature of 26°C. In the challenge, cohabitant shedders should be released directly into the test tank and make up around ⅓ of the fish, and bacteria should be added directly to water. The last two experiments, with the highest mortality, suggest that any factor involving the dead cohabitants should be removed and that additional experimentation should focus on bacteria (density) and timing for addition of bacteria to water. Genetic analyses revealed that resistance to bacillary necrosis tested in replicated tanks in the same experiment can be considered the same genetic trait.

The aim was to carry out a joint genetic analysis of survival and harvest body weight, recorded in a growth performance test in Mekong striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus), and susceptibility to bacillary necrosis (caused by Edwardsiella ictaluri), recorded in challenge tests. Data were from two challenge tested year-classes (~6,000 fish in both) that both had growth test data available for survival and body weight (~13,000 fish each year). Data were analysed with a linear tri-variate sire-dam model without the common environmental effect because otherwise genetic correlations were estimated with large standard errors. Susceptibility to bacillary necrosis was found weakly genetically correlated to both growth and survival in the growth test, while growth was found with moderate favourable genetic correlation to growth survival. To defend continued challenge testing of striped catfish in Vietnam, a strong genetic relationship needs to be established between bacillary necrosis and survival under a natural disease outbreak. This requires another field test (in addition to the growth test) with siblings, without antibiotic treatment and the cause of death continuously monitored. Meanwhile, the routine challenge testing with the aim to indirectly improve field survival through selection should continue.

In this paper, device to device (D2D) network is studied to support transmission in close distance among group of two users. Such two users benefit from new technique of multiple access, namely non-orthogonal multiple access. Two modes of D2D are considered, such as direct and relay links. Energy harvesting and design of multiple antennas have main impacts on system performance. We derive the closed-form expressions of outage probability for two devices in many scenarios. The Decode and Forward relaying scheme is adopted in this study. To ensure the quality of service (QoS) for the devices, suitable mode can be decided based on specific demand. We compare system performance by varying main parameters such as power allocation factors or transmit signal to noise ratio. Numerical results are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed D2D transmission strategies.

Background: Trials of fluoxetine for recovery after stroke report conflicting results. The Assessment oF FluoxetINe In sTroke recoverY (AFFINITY) trial aimed to show if daily oral fluoxetine for 6 months after stroke improves functional outcome in an ethnically diverse population.Methods: AFFINITY was a randomised, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial done in 43 hospital stroke units in Australia (n=29), New Zealand (four), and Vietnam (ten). Eligible patients were adults (aged ≥18 years) with a clinical diagnosis of acute stroke in the previous 2–15 days, brain imaging consistent with ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, and a persisting neurological deficit that produced a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 1 or more. Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 via a web-based system using a minimisation algorithm to once daily, oral fluoxetine 20 mg capsules or matching placebo for 6 months. Patients, carers, investigators, and outcome assessors were masked to the treatment allocation. The primary outcome was functional status, measured by the mRS, at 6 months. The primary analysis was an ordinal logistic regression of the mRS at 6 months, adjusted for minimisation variables. Primary and safety analyses were done according to the patient's treatment allocation. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12611000774921.Findings: Between Jan 11, 2013, and June 30, 2019, 1280 patients were recruited in Australia (n=532), New Zealand (n=42), and Vietnam (n=706), of whom 642 were randomly assigned to fluoxetine and 638 were randomly assigned to placebo. Mean duration of trial treatment was 167 days (SD 48·1). At 6 months, mRS data were available in 624 (97%) patients in the fluoxetine group and 632 (99%) in the placebo group. The distribution of mRS categories was similar in the fluoxetine and placebo groups (adjusted common odds ratio 0·94, 95% CI 0·76–1·15; p=0·53). Compared with patients in the placebo group, patients in the fluoxetine group had more falls (20 [3%] vs seven [1%]; p=0·018), bone fractures (19 [3%] vs six [1%]; p=0·014), and epileptic seizures (ten [2%] vs two [Interpretation: Oral fluoxetine 20 mg daily for 6 months after acute stroke did not improve functional outcome and increased the risk of falls, bone fractures, and epileptic seizures. These results do not support the use of fluoxetine to improve functional outcome after stroke.Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

As a promising technique, power beacon provides ability of wireless energy transfer to relaying devices in Internet of Things (IoT) to serve far devices with respect to low latency and high spectrum efficiency manner. Mobile edge computing (MEC) enables smart devices to offload parts of their computation-workloads to the cellular base stations associated with edge servers. This paper introduces a promising multiple access technique, namely non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) to provide communication service between the base station associated with MEC and far IoT devices. In this paper, we indicate that the multiple power beacons (PBs) benefits to uplink of NOMA-MEC system with the wireless powered IoT. More antennas equipped at smart device and more PBs exhibit reasonable outage performance for the considered system. The simulation results reveal in two folds: (1) our proposed scheme can simultaneously achieve higher spectrum efficiency and ensure prolong lifetime of IoT devices; (2) the mobility of relay leads to select PB appropriately and hence the suitable scheme is realized as comparing two schemes related to ability of energy harvesting and acceptable outage behavior.

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications are regarded as the key technology in future vehicular networks. V2X features promising benefits in providing efficient and reliable massive connections, improving traffic efficiency and safety, as well as supporting in-vehicle entertainment and other functions. Recently, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is further known as a promising solution in the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication systems. Such NOMA has drawn much attention because of its ability to significantly improve the network throughput and lower the accessing and transmission latency to meet the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of many 5G-enabled applications. In this respect, this paper first considers a full-duplex (FD) transmission mode together with the Roadside Unit (RSU) selection scheme in a NOMA-V2X networks since relay selection based NOMA network is introduced as technique to increase the ergodic capacity. In the considered NOMA-V2X systems, the vehicles enable device-to-device (D2D) transmission mode to permit two nearby vehicles communicate at close distances. To further robust performance, the vehicle requires relaying transmission in group of RSUs which tight connected with a cellular network. Secondly, we compare ergodic rate performance of two vehicles in specific group. Finally, we evaluate the ergodic performance by deriving the exact and closed-form expressions of ergodic rate in various scenarios. The results show that ergodic rate improvement can be achieved by increasing the number of RSUs and limiting impact of self-interference due to the FD mode.