It's only words : the crystal meth dilemma

Crystal meth has been an illicit drug for many years but did not surface as a problem until the 1990s. Between 200 and 2006, a number of provincial documents were produced in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to examine this problem. A shift appeared to have occurred in terms of how to handle this situation. Traditionally, illicit drugs such as crystal meth were dealt with by the criminal justice system; however, in this case, provincial health departments prepared these documents. The intent of this thesis is to examine these documents by providing a discourse analysis and applying concepts from Foucault, vanDijk and Phillips and Hardy. Three questions are asked: (i) who are the voices of these documents? (ii) who is identified as being at risk? and (iii) how is crystal meth socially constructed and what solutions are presented? All three provinces identify the same at risk population, our youth. British Columbia and Saskatchewan construct crystal meth as an educational and health problem, while Alberta focuses mainly on crystal meth as being a criminal problem. This research concludes that the solutions offered by the various experts from these provinces are unrealistic. The social determinants of health such as adequate income, housing and employment opportunities are discussed in these provincial documents however, nothing concrete is provided. Saskatchewan is the only province to commit money to finance new programs to assist with the crystal meth problem

Study on Packet Forwarding Mechanism by Narrowing Relay Range in Ad Hoc Networks

早大学位記番号:新7461早稲田大

Analysis of P4 and XDP for IoT programmability in 6G and beyond

Recently, two technologies have emerged to provide advanced programmability in Software-Defined Networking (SDN) environments, namely P4 and XDP. At the same time, the Internet of Things (IoT) represents a pillar of future 6G networks, which will be also sustained by SDN. In this regard, there is a need to analyze the suitability of P4 and XDP for IoT. In this article, we aim to compare both technologies to help future research efforts in the field. To this purpose, we evaluate both technologies by implementing diverse use cases, assessing their performance and providing a quick qualitative overview. All tests and designed scenarios are publicly available in GitHub to guarantee replication and serve as initial steps for researchers that want to initiate in the field. Results illustrate that currently XDP is the best option for constrained IoT devices, showing lower latency times, half of CPU usage, and reduced memory in comparison with P4. However, development of P4 programs is more straightforward and the amount of code lines is more similar regardless of the scenario. Additionally, P4 has a lot of potential in IoT if a special effort is made to improve the most common software target, BMv2.Comunidad de MadridJunta de Comunidades de Castilla-La ManchaUniversidad de Alcal

A multiscale model for collagen alignment in wound healing

It is thought that collagen alignment plays a significant part in scar tissue formation during dermal wound healing. We present a multiscale model for collagen deposition and alignment during this process. We consider fibroblasts as discrete units moving within an extracellular matrix of collagen and fibrin modelled as continua. Our model includes flux induced alignment of collagen by fibroblasts, and contact guidance of fibroblasts by collagen fibres. We can use the model to predict the effects of certain manipulations, such as varying fibroblast speed, or placing an aligned piece of tissue in the wound. We also simulate experiments which alter the TGF-β concentrations in a healing dermal wound and use the model to offer an explanation of the observed influence of this growth factor on scarring

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed