A Study on Efficient Design of A Multimedia Conversion Module in PESMS for Social Media Services

The main contribution of this paper is to present the Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS) Environment for Social Multimedia Service (PESMS), derived fromthe Social Media Cloud Computing Service Environment. The main role ofour PESMS is to support the development of social networking services thatinclude audio, image, and video formats. In this paper, we focus in particular on the design and implementation of PESMS, including the transcoding function for processing large amounts of social media in a parallel and distributed manner. PESMS is designed to improve the quality and speed of multimedia conversions by incorporating a multimedia conversion module based on Hadoop, consisting of Hadoop Distributed File System for storing large quantities of social data and MapReduce for distributed parallel processing of these data. In this way, our PESMS has the prospect of exponentially reducing the encoding time for transcoding large numbers of image files into specific formats. To test system performance for the transcoding function, we measured the image transcoding time under a variety of experimental conditions. Based on experiments performed on a 28-node cluster, we found that our system delivered excellent performance in the image transcoding function

Home Appliance Management System for Monitoring Digitized Devices Using Cloud Computing Technology in Ubiquitous Sensor Network Environment

The number of service techniques available for digitized home appliances is rapidly increasing as a result of various advances in digital technology. Users can now easily control and monitor home appliances via sensor networks formed among home appliances in ubiquitous environments. However, home appliances generate such large amounts of metadata about their status every month that in order to provide home appliance monitoring services to users, an approach that is able to store, analyze, and process these large amounts of metadata is needed. We propose a system that uses UPnP to collect metadata from home appliances and cloud computing technology to store and process the metadata collected from ubiquitous sensor network environments. Our proposed system utilizes a home gateway and is designed and implemented using UPnP technology to search for and collect device features and service information. It also provides a function for transmitting the metadata from the home appliances to a cloud-based data server that uses Hadoop-based technology to store and process the metadata collected by a home appliance monitoring service

"I Was Attracted to Him Because of His Money': Changing Forms of Polygyny in Contemporary Papua New Guinea

Substantial economic transition in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is giving rise to increased wealth, rapid social change and changing cultural practices. Polygyny practices in PNG have come under increasing domestic attention in recent years, especially as pertains to reinforcing patriarchy and exacerbating gender inequality. Based on qualitative research with women, we identify a new emerging polygyny' that is located in women's and girls' choices, decisions, experiences and actions, and which contrasts with other research documenting polygyny from men's perspectives. Narratives from female participants described young women and girls who actively seek polygynous relationships with men who have disposable income and other assets, with the aim of gaining access to economic wealth as co-wives. In the context of public and legal debate about the status of polygyny in PNG, these findings illustrate the need for a more balanced discussion about polygynous relationships, located within an understanding of women's lived experiences

Global change in hepatitis C virus prevalence and cascade of care between 2015 and 2020: a modelling study

Background Since the release of the first global hepatitis elimination targets in 2016, and until the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, many countries and territories were making progress toward hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination. This study aims to evaluate HCV burden in 2020, and forecast HCV burden by 2030 given current trends. Methods This analysis includes a literature review, Delphi process, and mathematical modelling to estimate HCV prevalence (viraemic infection, defined as HCV RNA-positive cases) and the cascade of care among people of all ages (age ≥0 years from birth) for the period between Jan 1, 2015, and Dec 31, 2030. Epidemiological data were collected from published sources and grey literature (including government reports and personal communications) and were validated among country and territory experts. A Markov model was used to forecast disease burden and cascade of care from 1950 to 2050 for countries and territories with data. Model outcomes were extracted from 2015 to 2030 to calculate population-weighted regional averages, which were used for countries or territories without data. Regional and global estimates of HCV prevalence, cascade of care, and disease burden were calculated based on 235 countries and territories. Findings Models were built for 110 countries or territories: 83 were approved by local experts and 27 were based on published data alone. Using data from these models, plus population-weighted regional averages for countries and territories without models (n=125), we estimated a global prevalence of viraemic HCV infection of 0·7% (95% UI 0·7–0·9), corresponding to 56·8 million (95% UI 55·2–67·8) infections, on Jan 1, 2020. This number represents a decrease of 6·8 million viraemic infections from a 2015 (beginning of year) prevalence estimate of 63·6 million (61·8–75·8) infections (0·9% [0·8–1·0] prevalence). By the end of 2020, an estimated 12·9 million (12·5–15·4) people were living with a diagnosed viraemic infection. In 2020, an estimated 641000 (623000–765000) patients initiated treatment. Interpretation At the beginning of 2020, there were an estimated 56·8 million viraemic HCV infections globally. Although this number represents a decrease from 2015, our forecasts suggest we are not currently on track to achieve global elimination targets by 2030. As countries recover from COVID-19, these findings can help refocus efforts aimed at HCV elimination