A New Framework of Urban Serious Game to Empower the Smartness of Citizens

With the Smart City concept gaining momentum around the world in recent years, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly popular and indispensable. However, existing criticisms claim that, in addition to Technology, the smartness of citizens should also be emphasized. In other words, it is essential to enable citizens to become involved in their cities as stakeholders. In this paper, a game-based approach to facilitate the involvement of citizens in civic life is taken. By analyzing some popular digital video games, Augmented Reality (AR) and theories from socialists and psychologists, a new Urban-gaming framework is built, which could be used for data collection, decision-making and other urban issues

HARMONIOUS MULTICAST RETRANSMISSION FOR LOW-POWER AND LOSSY NETWORKS FIRMWARE UPGRADING

Techniques are described herein for composing multicast retransmissions harmoniously by prioritizing transmission of new messages and regulating retransmission of old messages. Only the same multicast messages are forwarded simultaneously such that loss due to collision can be significantly reduced. By measuring the intervals of new messages and counting the duplicates, retransmissions are reasonably curbed with awareness of input rate and medium usage. This prevents the “domino effect” on a crowded channel when loss occurs. Moreover, self-silence mechanisms allow regular nodes to release channel resources for critical forwarders. Multicast retransmission is provided with guaranteed delivery rate, which is imperative for firmware upgrading in Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs)

Ediacaran Macro Body Fossils

This paper, Ediacaran Macro Body Fossils, reports a new discovery of well preserved three dimensional macro body fossils of the Ediacaran Period in central YunNan province in the People's Republic of China. These body fossils will enable more detailed and in-depth exploration of the evolution of multi-cellular macro organisms on this planet, whereas in the past, researches could only rely on cast or imprint fossils

CONCURRENT TRANSMISSION MECHANISM TO IMPROVE THROUGHPUT OF BOTTLENECK DEVICES IN LOW-POWER AND LOSSY NETWORKS

Techniques are described herein for designing a concurrent channel mechanism to cause mesh network border router devices or key/bottleneck devices to communicate with multiple devices concurrently. This may reduce collision probabilities and thus enhance the scaling ability of a network

Prevalence of waterpipe smoking and its associated factors among adolescents aged 12-16 years in 73 countries/territories

IntroductionTo describe the recent prevalence of, and trends in, waterpipe smoking and to examine its associated factors among adolescents aged 12-16 years in 73 countries/territories (hereafter "countries"). MethodsData from 72 countries that had conducted a Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in 2010-2019 and from the National Youth Tobacco Survey in the United States in 2019 were used to assess the recent prevalence of waterpipe smoking and to examine its associated factors among adolescents aged 12-16 years. Data from 38 countries that had carried out at least 2 surveys from 2000 to 2019 were used to determine trends in the prevalence of waterpipe smoking among adolescents.ResultsThe recent prevalence of current waterpipe smoking (on 1 day during the past 30 days) among adolescents was 6.9% (95%CI 6.4-7.5). The prevalence was highest in the European region (10.9%, 9.9-11.8) and Eastern Mediterranean region (10.7%, 9.5-11.9), but lowest in the Western Pacific region (1.9%, 1.4-2.4). The prevalence of current waterpipe smoking increased or remained unchanged in 19 (50%) of 38 countries, but decreased in the remaining 19 countries (50%). Parental smoking, closest friends' smoking, secondhand smoke exposure, tobacco advertisement exposure, not being taught the dangers of smoking, particularly cigarette smoking, were positively associated with adolescent waterpipe smoking.DiscussionWaterpipe smoking among adolescents remains a major public health issue worldwide, especially in the regions of Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Effective prevention and control strategies and measures are needed to curb the epidemic of adolescent waterpipe smoking.</p