AIM:To explore the repeatability,reproducibility,and agreement in the measurement of the choroidal vascularity index(CVI)for different swept-source optical coherence tomography(OCT)devices and between OCT and OCT angi...AIM:To explore the repeatability,reproducibility,and agreement in the measurement of the choroidal vascularity index(CVI)for different swept-source optical coherence tomography(OCT)devices and between OCT and OCT angiography(OCTA)images.METHODS:Two swept-source OCT imaging systems,VG200I and Topcon DRI OCT Triton,were used to capture OCT and OCTA images in triplicate.The first and third images were taken by one operator,and the second image was taken by another operator.The built-in software was used to calculate the CVI from the OCTA images(CVI-OCTA),and a custom-designed algorithm was used to calculate the CVI from the OCT images(CVI-OCT).Repeatability and reproducibility were assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC),and agreement between devices and between OCT and OCTA were evaluated with Bland-Altman analysis.RESULTS:Sixty-eight eyes from 35 adults(17 females)were included in the analysis.The average age of the participants was 23.6±2.3y,with an average spherical equivalent refraction of-3.08±2.47 D and an average AL of 25.21±1.20 mm.Both OCT devices demonstrated high repeatability and reproducibility in measuring the CVI-OCTA(all ICCs>0.894 across five choroidal regions)and CVI-OCT(all ICCs>0.838).Furthermore,the between-device agreement in measuring the CVI-OCT was good[mean difference(MD)ranging from-2.32%to-3.07%],but that in measuring the CVI-OCTA was poor(MD,1.48%to-7.43%).Additionally,the between-imaging agreement(CVI-OCTA versus CVI-OCT)was poor for both devices(Triton,MD,6.05%to 12.68%;VG200I,MD,6.67%to 12.09%).CONCLUSION:Both OCT devices and the two analytical methods demonstrate good stability.The inter-device consistency of CVI-OCT is good,while the inter-device consistency of CVI-OCTA and the consistency between the two analytical methods in the same device are both poor.展开更多
Purpose: To assess the inter-observer agreement in reading adults chest radiographs (CXR) and determine the effectiveness of observers in radiographic diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a tuberculosis endemi...Purpose: To assess the inter-observer agreement in reading adults chest radiographs (CXR) and determine the effectiveness of observers in radiographic diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a tuberculosis endemic area. Methods: A quasi-observational study was conducted in the Pneumology Department of Yaounde Jamot Hospital (Cameroon) from January to March 2014. This included six observers (two chest physicians, two radiologists, two end-training residents in medical imaging) and 47 frontal CXRs (4 of diffuse interstitial lung disease, 6 normal, 7 of lung cancers, 7 of bacterial pneumonia, 23 of PTB). The sample size was calculated on the basis of an expected 0.47 Kappa with a spread of 0.13 (α = 5%, CI = 95%) for six observers and five diagnostic items. The analysis of concordance was focused on the detection of nodules, cavitary lesions, pleural effusion, adenomegaly and diagnosis of PTB and lung cancer. These intervals of kappa coefficient were considered: discordance (0.81). Results: The average score for the detection of caverns was the highest (58.3%) followed by that of the correct diagnosis of tuberculosis (49.3%). Pneumologists had the highest proportions of correct diagnosis of tuberculosis (69.6% and 73.9%) and better inter-observer agreement (k = 0.71) for PTB diagnosis. Observers were more in agreement for the detection of nodules (0.32 - 0.74), adenomegalies (0.43 - 0.69), and for the diagnosis of cancer (0.22 - 1) than for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (0.19 - 0.71). Disagreements were more frequent for the detection of pleural effusions (-0.08 - 0.73). Conclusion: The inter-observer agreement varies with the type of lesions and diagnosis. Pneumologists were most effective for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Observers were more in agreement for the detection of nodules and the diagnosis of cancer than for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.展开更多
Objective To assess inter-observer variations of pulmonary nodule marking in routine clinical chest digital radiograph (DR) softcopy reading by using a lung nodule computer toolkit.Methods A total of 601 chest posteri...Objective To assess inter-observer variations of pulmonary nodule marking in routine clinical chest digital radiograph (DR) softcopy reading by using a lung nodule computer toolkit.Methods A total of 601 chest posterior-anterior DR images were randomly selected from routine outpatient screening in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Two chest radiologists with experience more than ten years were first asked to read the images and mark all suspicious nodules independently by using computer toolkit IQQA-Chest, and to indicate the likelihood for each nodule detected. They were also asked to draw the boundary of the identified nodule manually on an enlarged region of interest, which was instantly analyzed by IQQA-Chest. Two sets of diagnostic reports, including the marked nodules, likelihood, manually drawn boundaries, quantitative measurements, and radiologists’ names, were automatically generated and stored by the computer system. One week later, the two radiologists read the same images together by using the same computer toolkit without referring to their previous reading results. Marking procedure was the same except that consensus was reached for each suspicious region. Statistical analysis tools provided in the IQQA-Chest were used to compare all the three sets of reading results.Results In the independent readings, Reader 1 detected 409 nodules with a mean diameter of 12.4 mm in 241 patients, and Reader 2 detected 401 nodules with a mean diameter of 12.6 mm in 253 patients. In the consensus reading, a total of 352 nodules with a mean diameter of 12.4 mm were detected in 220 patients. Totally, 42.3% of Reader 1’s and 45.1% of Reader 2’s marks were confirmed by the consensus reading. About 40% of each reader’s marks agreed with the other. There were only 130 (14.4%) out of the total 904 unique nodules were confirmed by both readers and the consensus reading. Moreover, 5.6% (51/904) of the marked regions were rated identical likelihood in all three readings. Statistical analysis showed significant differences between Readers 1 and 2, and between consensus and Reader 2 in determining the likelihood of the marks (P<0.01), but not between consensus and Reader 1. No significant difference in terms of size was observed in nodule segmentation between either two of the three readings. Conclusion Large variations in nodule marking and nodule-likelihood determination but not in nodule size were observed between experts as well as between single-person reading and consensus reading.展开更多
Introduction: To investigate the inter-observer and inter-modality variabilities of two imaging guided equipments—cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and ultrasound (US) in kidney stereotactic body radiotherapy. Met...Introduction: To investigate the inter-observer and inter-modality variabilities of two imaging guided equipments—cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and ultrasound (US) in kidney stereotactic body radiotherapy. Methods: A renal metastasis case implanted with three gold anchor fiducial markers was firstly scanned by US to acquire a 3-dimension US image and followed by 4-dimension CBCT in every fraction. Seven observers retrospectively registered the pre-treatment images with the corresponding reference images based on the gold markers. Registration uncertainty of the observers between two imaging modalities was evaluated. Results: The uncertainties over whole treatment course in CBCT were 0.88 mm, 1.94 mm and 0.86 mm in lateral, longitudinal and vertical directions respectively;while 0.8 mm, 0.97 mm and 1.36 mm were found in US. Conclusion: The greatest uncertainty was found in longitudinal direction in CBCT due to the fact that the respiration motion is the most rigorous in cranial-caudal direction. In US, since the probe was hold almost in upright position, the strong echo in vertical direction was attributed to the greatest uncertainty for such direction.展开更多
<strong>Purpose:</strong><span style="font-family:;" "=""><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Radiotherapy is a widely accepted standard of care for early-sta...<strong>Purpose:</strong><span style="font-family:;" "=""><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Radiotherapy is a widely accepted standard of care for early-stage prostate cancer, and it is believed that the plan quality and treatment outcome are associated with contour accuracy of both the target and organs-at-risk (OAR). The purposes of this study are to 1) assess geometric and dosimetric uncertainties due to inter-observer contour variabilities and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of geometric indicators to predict target dosimetry in prostate radiotherapy. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Methods:</span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Twenty prostate patients were selected for this retrospective study. Five experienced clinicians created unique structure sets containing prostate, seminal vesicles, bladder, and rectum for each patient. A fully automated script and knowledge-based planning routine were utilized to create standardized and unbiased plans that could be used to evaluate changes in isodose distributions due to inter-observer variability in structure segmentation. Plans were created on a “gold-standard” structure set, as well as on each of the user-defined structure sets. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Results:</span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Inter-observer variability of contours during structure segmentation was very low for clearly defined organs such as the bladder but increased for organs without well-defined borders (prostate, seminal vesicles, and rectum). For plans generated with the user-defined structure sets, strong/moderate correlations were observed between the geometric indicators for target structure agreement and target coverage for both low-risk and intermediate-risk patient groups, while OAR indicators showed no correlation to final dosimetry. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Conclusions:</span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Target delineation is crucial in order to maintain adequate dosimetric coverage regardless of the associated inter-observer uncertainties in OAR contours that had a limited impact upon final dosimetry.</span></span>展开更多
Aims & Objectives: Aim of the study was to evaluate inter-observer variability in interpretation of Gallium-68 labeled Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen sub-type 11 (68Ga-PSMA-11) Positron Emission Tomography-Com...Aims & Objectives: Aim of the study was to evaluate inter-observer variability in interpretation of Gallium-68 labeled Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen sub-type 11 (68Ga-PSMA-11) Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography PET_CT scan according to Prostate Cancer Molecular Imaging Standardized Evaluation (PROMISE) criteria. Method and Materials: Forty-four consecutive patients of prostate cancer were prospectively studied between the duration of January 2021 to June 2021 at Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (INMOL), Lahore. All PET-CT scans were assessed by a researcher and 3 nuclear physicians and divided into two groups, interpreted in two phases. In the first phase, each group independently evaluated the scans while in the second phase, a consensus meeting was held and all the cases with discordance were discussed. Cohen’s Kappa test was used to measure interobserver variability with the cut-off of K’s alpha Results: The study showed 41 out of 44 scans with positive PSMA findings while 03 scans were negative for any PSMA avid disease. In the first phase of image analysis, the level of agreement was slight in T stage (Kappa = 0.068, p = 0.65), moderate in the miN stage (Kappa = 0.46, p = 0.02) and substantial in miM stage (Kappa = 0.77, p ≤ 0.001) was seen. For PSMA score, overall agreement was substantial agreement (Kappa = 0.64, p Conclusion: Remarkable inter-observer agreement was seen in PROMISE criteria.展开更多
This paper analyzes the text of 3261 clauses of 20 RTAs signed by China,classifies them into 52 policy areas according to the international mainstream HMS method,and assigns them through coding.The clause depth of Ch...This paper analyzes the text of 3261 clauses of 20 RTAs signed by China,classifies them into 52 policy areas according to the international mainstream HMS method,and assigns them through coding.The clause depth of China’s RTAs is measured across three-dimensional systems(policy areas,clauses,and core clauses)and two generations of trade policy areas(WTO+,WTO-X,and all policy areas).It is observed that China’s RTAs exhibit greater depth in Industrial Products,Agricultural Products,TBT,Antidumping,Countervailing,and Investment,while showing comparatively less depth in Fiscal Policy,Innovation Policies,and related areas.展开更多
With the rapid development and widespread adoption of Internet of Things(IoT)technology,the innovative concept of the Internet of Vehicles(IoV)has emerged,ushering in a new era of intelligent transportation.Since vehi...With the rapid development and widespread adoption of Internet of Things(IoT)technology,the innovative concept of the Internet of Vehicles(IoV)has emerged,ushering in a new era of intelligent transportation.Since vehicles are mobile entities,they move across different domains and need to communicate with the Roadside Unit(RSU)in various regions.However,open environments are highly susceptible to becoming targets for attackers,posing significant risks of malicious attacks.Therefore,it is crucial to design a secure authentication protocol to ensure the security of communication between vehicles and RSUs,particularly in scenarios where vehicles cross domains.In this paper,we propose a provably secure cross-domain authentication and key agreement protocol for IoV.Our protocol comprises two authentication phases:intra-domain authentication and cross-domain authentication.To ensure the security of our protocol,we conducted rigorous analyses based on the ROR(Real-or-Random)model and Scyther.Finally,we show in-depth comparisons of our protocol with existing ones from both security and performance perspectives,fully demonstrating its security and efficiency.展开更多
As the adoption of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks(VANETs)grows,ensuring secure communication between smart vehicles and remote application servers(APPs)has become a critical challenge.While existing solutions focus on vari...As the adoption of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks(VANETs)grows,ensuring secure communication between smart vehicles and remote application servers(APPs)has become a critical challenge.While existing solutions focus on various aspects of security,gaps remain in addressing both high security requirements and the resource-constrained nature of VANET environments.This paper proposes an extended-Kerberos protocol that integrates Physical Unclonable Function(PUF)for authentication and key agreement,offering a comprehensive solution to the security challenges in VANETs.The protocol facilitates mutual authentication and secure key agreement between vehicles and APPs,ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of vehicle-to-network(V2N)communications and preventing malicious data injection.Notably,by replacing traditional Kerberos password authentication with Challenge-Response Pairs(CRPs)generated by PUF,the protocol significantly reduces the risk of key leakage.The inherent properties of PUF—such as unclonability and unpredictability—make it an ideal defense against physical attacks,including intrusion,semi-intrusion,and side-channel attacks.The results of this study demonstrate that this approach not only enhances security but also optimizes communication efficiency,reduces latency,and improves overall user experience.The analysis proves that our protocol achieves at least 86%improvement in computational efficiency compared to some existed protocols.This is particularly crucial in resource-constrained VANET environments,where it enables efficient data transmission between vehicles and applications,reduces latency,and enhances the overall user experience.展开更多
Chile,a pioneer and benchmark partner for China's free trade.cooperation in Latin America,holds a special position in China-Latin America economic and trade relations.It was the first Latin American country to sig...Chile,a pioneer and benchmark partner for China's free trade.cooperation in Latin America,holds a special position in China-Latin America economic and trade relations.It was the first Latin American country to sign a bilateral free trade agreement with China and the first to reach an upgraded protocol.Chile also established mutual recognition of Authorized Economic Operators(AEO)with China,the first country in South America to do so.展开更多
Lignite provides energy security and contributes economically.However,it also causes dirty outcomes in terms of climate aspect.In addition to the energy and climate dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals,ther...Lignite provides energy security and contributes economically.However,it also causes dirty outcomes in terms of climate aspect.In addition to the energy and climate dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals,there is also a water issue:lignite is usually found submerged below the local groundwater tables.Mining lignite could be exploited to achieve drinkable and agriculturally usable water.In today’s literature,while the impact of lignite production on global warming and emissions are already highly discussed,the water management side of the issue is regularly omitted.However,considering the complex interlink between these three areas(the Water-Energy-Climate(WEC)nexus)is necessary within policy coherence,which is mostly ignored even though it is one of the development targets.Here in this framework,Turkiye,which aims to reduce its heavy dependency on energy imports,is worth studying because almost all of its coal,the country’s largest fossil resource,is lignite.Therefore,this study examines the WEC nexus related to lignite production and combustion and seeks policy coherence between their outputs in the context of Turkiye’s historical steps to climate change mitigation,specifically oriented with the Paris Agreement.This story expands from the absence of specific development policy objectives to the practicalities of politics and economics.展开更多
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has endowed the concept of state sovereignty with new era-specific connotations,leading to the emergence of the theory of data sovereignty.While countries refine their domestic legisla...The Fourth Industrial Revolution has endowed the concept of state sovereignty with new era-specific connotations,leading to the emergence of the theory of data sovereignty.While countries refine their domestic legislation to establish their data sovereignty,they are also actively engaging in the negotiation of cross-border data flow rules within international trade agreements to construct data sovereignty.During these negotiations,countries express differing regulatory claims,with some focusing on safeguarding sovereignty and protecting human rights,some prioritizing economic promotion and security assurance,and others targeting traditional and innovative digital trade barriers.These varied approaches reflect the tension between three pairs of values:collectivism and individualism,freedom and security,and tradition and innovation.Based on their distinct value pursuits,three representative models of data sovereignty construction have emerged globally.At the current juncture,when international rules for digital trade are still in their nascent stages,China should timely establish its data sovereignty rules,actively participate in global data sovereignty competition,and balance its sovereignty interests with other interests.Specifically,China should explore the scope of system-acceptable digital trade barriers through free trade zones;integrate domestic and international legal frameworks to ensure the alignment of China’s data governance legislation with its obligations under international trade agreements;and use the development of the“Digital Silk Road”as a starting point to prioritize the formation of digital trade rules with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative,promoting the Chinese solutions internationally.展开更多
5G technology has endowed mobile communication terminals with features such as ultrawideband access,low latency,and high reliability transmission,which can complete the network access and interconnection of a large nu...5G technology has endowed mobile communication terminals with features such as ultrawideband access,low latency,and high reliability transmission,which can complete the network access and interconnection of a large number of devices,thus realizing richer application scenarios and constructing 5G-enabled vehicular networks.However,due to the vulnerability of wireless communication,vehicle privacy and communication security have become the key problems to be solved in vehicular networks.Moreover,the large-scale communication in the vehicular networks also makes the higher communication efficiency an inevitable requirement.In order to achieve efficient and secure communication while protecting vehicle privacy,this paper proposes a lightweight key agreement and key update scheme for 5G vehicular networks based on blockchain.Firstly,the key agreement is accomplished using certificateless public key cryptography,and based on the aggregate signature and the cooperation between the vehicle and the trusted authority,an efficient key updating method is proposed,which reduces the overhead and protects the privacy of the vehicle while ensuring the communication security.Secondly,by introducing blockchain and using smart contracts to load the vehicle public key table for key management,this meets the requirements of vehicle traceability and can dynamically track and revoke misbehaving vehicles.Finally,the formal security proof under the eck security model and the informal security analysis is conducted,it turns out that our scheme is more secure than other authentication schemes in the vehicular networks.Performance analysis shows that our scheme has lower overhead than existing schemes in terms of communication and computation.展开更多
With the recent advances in quantum computing,the key agreement algorithm based on traditional cryptography theory,which is applied to the Internet of Things(IoT)scenario,will no longer be secure due to the possibilit...With the recent advances in quantum computing,the key agreement algorithm based on traditional cryptography theory,which is applied to the Internet of Things(IoT)scenario,will no longer be secure due to the possibility of information leakage.In this paper,we propose a anti-quantum dynamic authenticated group key agreement scheme(AQDA-GKA)according to the ring-learning with errors(RLWE)problem,which is suitable for IoT environments.First,the proposed AQDA-GKA scheme can implement a group key agreement against quantum computing attacks by leveraging an RLWE-based key agreement mechanism.Second,this scheme can achieve dynamic node management,ensuring that any node can freely join or exit the current group.Third,we formally prove that the proposed scheme can resist quantum computing attacks as well as collusion attacks.Finally,the performance and security analysis reveals that the proposed AQDA-GKA scheme is secure and effective.展开更多
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)are increasingly recognized for their pivotal role in military and civilian applications,serving as essential technology for transmitting,evaluating,and gathering information.Unfortunatel...Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)are increasingly recognized for their pivotal role in military and civilian applications,serving as essential technology for transmitting,evaluating,and gathering information.Unfortunately,this crucial process often occurs through unsecured wireless connections,exposing it to numerous cyber-physical attacks.Furthermore,UAVs’limited onboard computing resources make it challenging to perform complex cryptographic operations.The main aim of constructing a cryptographic scheme is to provide substantial security while reducing the computation and communication costs.This article introduces an efficient and secure cross-domain Authenticated Key Agreement(AKA)scheme that uses Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography(HECC).The HECC,a modified version of ECC with a smaller key size of 80 bits,is well-suited for use in UAVs.In addition,the proposed scheme is employed in a cross-domain environment that integrates a Public Key Infrastructure(PKI)at the receiving end and a Certificateless Cryptosystem(CLC)at the sending end.Integrating CLC with PKI improves network security by restricting the exposure of encryption keys only to the message’s sender and subsequent receiver.A security study employing ROM and ROR models,together with a comparative performance analysis,shows that the proposed scheme outperforms comparable existing schemes in terms of both efficiency and security.展开更多
On 19 June 2023,the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ Agreement)was a...On 19 June 2023,the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ Agreement)was adopted.The BBNJ Agreement aims to regulate the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction,including the high seas and the international seabed area.The BBNJ Agreement enters into an already crowded institutional landscape as a global authority with broad objectives,inevitably interacting with existing institutions,frameworks,and bodies(IFBs).Existing research has primarily focused on two areas:the first examines the impact of the institutions established by the BBNJ Agreement on existing marine governance IFBs;the second explores its influence on issues currently lacking institutional arrangements.However,comparatively little attention has been given to the Agreement’s potential impact on governance gaps within established systems.This paper takes the case of marine genetic resource(MGRs)management in the Antarctic Treaty Area to explore how the BBNJ Agreement may address regulatory gaps in a competent governance framework.Due to shortcomings in addressing core issues,concerning the legal status of MGRs access regulations,benefit-sharing mechanisms,and disclosure of origin,the Agreement is unlikely to have a significant impact on the governance of MGRs in the Antarctic Treaty System(ATS)in the short term.On the other hand,the ATS,as an effective governance framework for the Antarctic Treaty Area,has mature regulations and practical experience in Antarctic governance.Over the years,the ATS has focused on regulating bioprospecting activities as scientific research ones and strict environmental impact assessment procedures.However,there has not been an effective consensus on the regulation of commercial biological prospecting.This paper further explores the coordination issue between the BBNJ Agreement and the ATS,suggesting that in the future,MGRs governance in the Antarctic Treaty Area may evolve into a polycentric governance system.展开更多
Labor provisions have become a fundamental trade rule in regional and bilateral trade agreements.Although China’s legislation on pilot Free Trade Zones includes content related to labor protection,it primarily aligns...Labor provisions have become a fundamental trade rule in regional and bilateral trade agreements.Although China’s legislation on pilot Free Trade Zones includes content related to labor protection,it primarily aligns with labor indicators in“Doing Business”,the assessment of business situations issued by the World Bank.It differs from the labor rights protection focus emphasized in trade agreements.The latest strategic documents issued by the State Council of China have addressed this issue to fully achieve the goal of aligning Free Trade Zones with high-standard trade agreements.Building on the development of Free Trade Zone legislation and domestic labor law governance,China should proactively explore a tailored approach to labor provisions in Free Trade Agreements.In this approach,it should explicitly define the“baseline”and“ceiling”for labor provisions during negotiations and,within this framework,establish benchmarks for labor rights protection,enforcement mechanisms,and cross-border regulatory mechanisms suited to the specific conditions of the agreement parties.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(No.2022YFC3502503)the Medical and Health Science and Technology Project of the Zhejiang Provincial Health Commission of China(No.2022PY072).
文摘AIM:To explore the repeatability,reproducibility,and agreement in the measurement of the choroidal vascularity index(CVI)for different swept-source optical coherence tomography(OCT)devices and between OCT and OCT angiography(OCTA)images.METHODS:Two swept-source OCT imaging systems,VG200I and Topcon DRI OCT Triton,were used to capture OCT and OCTA images in triplicate.The first and third images were taken by one operator,and the second image was taken by another operator.The built-in software was used to calculate the CVI from the OCTA images(CVI-OCTA),and a custom-designed algorithm was used to calculate the CVI from the OCT images(CVI-OCT).Repeatability and reproducibility were assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient(ICC),and agreement between devices and between OCT and OCTA were evaluated with Bland-Altman analysis.RESULTS:Sixty-eight eyes from 35 adults(17 females)were included in the analysis.The average age of the participants was 23.6±2.3y,with an average spherical equivalent refraction of-3.08±2.47 D and an average AL of 25.21±1.20 mm.Both OCT devices demonstrated high repeatability and reproducibility in measuring the CVI-OCTA(all ICCs>0.894 across five choroidal regions)and CVI-OCT(all ICCs>0.838).Furthermore,the between-device agreement in measuring the CVI-OCT was good[mean difference(MD)ranging from-2.32%to-3.07%],but that in measuring the CVI-OCTA was poor(MD,1.48%to-7.43%).Additionally,the between-imaging agreement(CVI-OCTA versus CVI-OCT)was poor for both devices(Triton,MD,6.05%to 12.68%;VG200I,MD,6.67%to 12.09%).CONCLUSION:Both OCT devices and the two analytical methods demonstrate good stability.The inter-device consistency of CVI-OCT is good,while the inter-device consistency of CVI-OCTA and the consistency between the two analytical methods in the same device are both poor.
文摘Purpose: To assess the inter-observer agreement in reading adults chest radiographs (CXR) and determine the effectiveness of observers in radiographic diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a tuberculosis endemic area. Methods: A quasi-observational study was conducted in the Pneumology Department of Yaounde Jamot Hospital (Cameroon) from January to March 2014. This included six observers (two chest physicians, two radiologists, two end-training residents in medical imaging) and 47 frontal CXRs (4 of diffuse interstitial lung disease, 6 normal, 7 of lung cancers, 7 of bacterial pneumonia, 23 of PTB). The sample size was calculated on the basis of an expected 0.47 Kappa with a spread of 0.13 (α = 5%, CI = 95%) for six observers and five diagnostic items. The analysis of concordance was focused on the detection of nodules, cavitary lesions, pleural effusion, adenomegaly and diagnosis of PTB and lung cancer. These intervals of kappa coefficient were considered: discordance (0.81). Results: The average score for the detection of caverns was the highest (58.3%) followed by that of the correct diagnosis of tuberculosis (49.3%). Pneumologists had the highest proportions of correct diagnosis of tuberculosis (69.6% and 73.9%) and better inter-observer agreement (k = 0.71) for PTB diagnosis. Observers were more in agreement for the detection of nodules (0.32 - 0.74), adenomegalies (0.43 - 0.69), and for the diagnosis of cancer (0.22 - 1) than for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (0.19 - 0.71). Disagreements were more frequent for the detection of pleural effusions (-0.08 - 0.73). Conclusion: The inter-observer agreement varies with the type of lesions and diagnosis. Pneumologists were most effective for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Observers were more in agreement for the detection of nodules and the diagnosis of cancer than for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.
文摘Objective To assess inter-observer variations of pulmonary nodule marking in routine clinical chest digital radiograph (DR) softcopy reading by using a lung nodule computer toolkit.Methods A total of 601 chest posterior-anterior DR images were randomly selected from routine outpatient screening in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Two chest radiologists with experience more than ten years were first asked to read the images and mark all suspicious nodules independently by using computer toolkit IQQA-Chest, and to indicate the likelihood for each nodule detected. They were also asked to draw the boundary of the identified nodule manually on an enlarged region of interest, which was instantly analyzed by IQQA-Chest. Two sets of diagnostic reports, including the marked nodules, likelihood, manually drawn boundaries, quantitative measurements, and radiologists’ names, were automatically generated and stored by the computer system. One week later, the two radiologists read the same images together by using the same computer toolkit without referring to their previous reading results. Marking procedure was the same except that consensus was reached for each suspicious region. Statistical analysis tools provided in the IQQA-Chest were used to compare all the three sets of reading results.Results In the independent readings, Reader 1 detected 409 nodules with a mean diameter of 12.4 mm in 241 patients, and Reader 2 detected 401 nodules with a mean diameter of 12.6 mm in 253 patients. In the consensus reading, a total of 352 nodules with a mean diameter of 12.4 mm were detected in 220 patients. Totally, 42.3% of Reader 1’s and 45.1% of Reader 2’s marks were confirmed by the consensus reading. About 40% of each reader’s marks agreed with the other. There were only 130 (14.4%) out of the total 904 unique nodules were confirmed by both readers and the consensus reading. Moreover, 5.6% (51/904) of the marked regions were rated identical likelihood in all three readings. Statistical analysis showed significant differences between Readers 1 and 2, and between consensus and Reader 2 in determining the likelihood of the marks (P<0.01), but not between consensus and Reader 1. No significant difference in terms of size was observed in nodule segmentation between either two of the three readings. Conclusion Large variations in nodule marking and nodule-likelihood determination but not in nodule size were observed between experts as well as between single-person reading and consensus reading.
文摘Introduction: To investigate the inter-observer and inter-modality variabilities of two imaging guided equipments—cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and ultrasound (US) in kidney stereotactic body radiotherapy. Methods: A renal metastasis case implanted with three gold anchor fiducial markers was firstly scanned by US to acquire a 3-dimension US image and followed by 4-dimension CBCT in every fraction. Seven observers retrospectively registered the pre-treatment images with the corresponding reference images based on the gold markers. Registration uncertainty of the observers between two imaging modalities was evaluated. Results: The uncertainties over whole treatment course in CBCT were 0.88 mm, 1.94 mm and 0.86 mm in lateral, longitudinal and vertical directions respectively;while 0.8 mm, 0.97 mm and 1.36 mm were found in US. Conclusion: The greatest uncertainty was found in longitudinal direction in CBCT due to the fact that the respiration motion is the most rigorous in cranial-caudal direction. In US, since the probe was hold almost in upright position, the strong echo in vertical direction was attributed to the greatest uncertainty for such direction.
文摘<strong>Purpose:</strong><span style="font-family:;" "=""><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Radiotherapy is a widely accepted standard of care for early-stage prostate cancer, and it is believed that the plan quality and treatment outcome are associated with contour accuracy of both the target and organs-at-risk (OAR). The purposes of this study are to 1) assess geometric and dosimetric uncertainties due to inter-observer contour variabilities and 2) evaluate the effectiveness of geometric indicators to predict target dosimetry in prostate radiotherapy. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Methods:</span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Twenty prostate patients were selected for this retrospective study. Five experienced clinicians created unique structure sets containing prostate, seminal vesicles, bladder, and rectum for each patient. A fully automated script and knowledge-based planning routine were utilized to create standardized and unbiased plans that could be used to evaluate changes in isodose distributions due to inter-observer variability in structure segmentation. Plans were created on a “gold-standard” structure set, as well as on each of the user-defined structure sets. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Results:</span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Inter-observer variability of contours during structure segmentation was very low for clearly defined organs such as the bladder but increased for organs without well-defined borders (prostate, seminal vesicles, and rectum). For plans generated with the user-defined structure sets, strong/moderate correlations were observed between the geometric indicators for target structure agreement and target coverage for both low-risk and intermediate-risk patient groups, while OAR indicators showed no correlation to final dosimetry. </span><b><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Conclusions:</span></b><span style="font-family:Verdana;"> Target delineation is crucial in order to maintain adequate dosimetric coverage regardless of the associated inter-observer uncertainties in OAR contours that had a limited impact upon final dosimetry.</span></span>
文摘Aims & Objectives: Aim of the study was to evaluate inter-observer variability in interpretation of Gallium-68 labeled Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen sub-type 11 (68Ga-PSMA-11) Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography PET_CT scan according to Prostate Cancer Molecular Imaging Standardized Evaluation (PROMISE) criteria. Method and Materials: Forty-four consecutive patients of prostate cancer were prospectively studied between the duration of January 2021 to June 2021 at Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (INMOL), Lahore. All PET-CT scans were assessed by a researcher and 3 nuclear physicians and divided into two groups, interpreted in two phases. In the first phase, each group independently evaluated the scans while in the second phase, a consensus meeting was held and all the cases with discordance were discussed. Cohen’s Kappa test was used to measure interobserver variability with the cut-off of K’s alpha Results: The study showed 41 out of 44 scans with positive PSMA findings while 03 scans were negative for any PSMA avid disease. In the first phase of image analysis, the level of agreement was slight in T stage (Kappa = 0.068, p = 0.65), moderate in the miN stage (Kappa = 0.46, p = 0.02) and substantial in miM stage (Kappa = 0.77, p ≤ 0.001) was seen. For PSMA score, overall agreement was substantial agreement (Kappa = 0.64, p Conclusion: Remarkable inter-observer agreement was seen in PROMISE criteria.
基金General Project of Beijing Social Science Foundation,“Research on the Internal and External Strategic Alignment of Regional Trade Agreements and the High-Quality Construction of China(Beijing)Pilot Free Trade Zone”(Project No.:21GLB021)。
文摘This paper analyzes the text of 3261 clauses of 20 RTAs signed by China,classifies them into 52 policy areas according to the international mainstream HMS method,and assigns them through coding.The clause depth of China’s RTAs is measured across three-dimensional systems(policy areas,clauses,and core clauses)and two generations of trade policy areas(WTO+,WTO-X,and all policy areas).It is observed that China’s RTAs exhibit greater depth in Industrial Products,Agricultural Products,TBT,Antidumping,Countervailing,and Investment,while showing comparatively less depth in Fiscal Policy,Innovation Policies,and related areas.
基金supported by the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province,China(Grant no.ZR202111230202).
文摘With the rapid development and widespread adoption of Internet of Things(IoT)technology,the innovative concept of the Internet of Vehicles(IoV)has emerged,ushering in a new era of intelligent transportation.Since vehicles are mobile entities,they move across different domains and need to communicate with the Roadside Unit(RSU)in various regions.However,open environments are highly susceptible to becoming targets for attackers,posing significant risks of malicious attacks.Therefore,it is crucial to design a secure authentication protocol to ensure the security of communication between vehicles and RSUs,particularly in scenarios where vehicles cross domains.In this paper,we propose a provably secure cross-domain authentication and key agreement protocol for IoV.Our protocol comprises two authentication phases:intra-domain authentication and cross-domain authentication.To ensure the security of our protocol,we conducted rigorous analyses based on the ROR(Real-or-Random)model and Scyther.Finally,we show in-depth comparisons of our protocol with existing ones from both security and performance perspectives,fully demonstrating its security and efficiency.
基金supported in part by the Jiangsu“Qing Lan Project”,Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China(Major Research Project:23KJA520007)Postgraduate Research&Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province(No.SJCX25_1303).
文摘As the adoption of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks(VANETs)grows,ensuring secure communication between smart vehicles and remote application servers(APPs)has become a critical challenge.While existing solutions focus on various aspects of security,gaps remain in addressing both high security requirements and the resource-constrained nature of VANET environments.This paper proposes an extended-Kerberos protocol that integrates Physical Unclonable Function(PUF)for authentication and key agreement,offering a comprehensive solution to the security challenges in VANETs.The protocol facilitates mutual authentication and secure key agreement between vehicles and APPs,ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of vehicle-to-network(V2N)communications and preventing malicious data injection.Notably,by replacing traditional Kerberos password authentication with Challenge-Response Pairs(CRPs)generated by PUF,the protocol significantly reduces the risk of key leakage.The inherent properties of PUF—such as unclonability and unpredictability—make it an ideal defense against physical attacks,including intrusion,semi-intrusion,and side-channel attacks.The results of this study demonstrate that this approach not only enhances security but also optimizes communication efficiency,reduces latency,and improves overall user experience.The analysis proves that our protocol achieves at least 86%improvement in computational efficiency compared to some existed protocols.This is particularly crucial in resource-constrained VANET environments,where it enables efficient data transmission between vehicles and applications,reduces latency,and enhances the overall user experience.
文摘Chile,a pioneer and benchmark partner for China's free trade.cooperation in Latin America,holds a special position in China-Latin America economic and trade relations.It was the first Latin American country to sign a bilateral free trade agreement with China and the first to reach an upgraded protocol.Chile also established mutual recognition of Authorized Economic Operators(AEO)with China,the first country in South America to do so.
文摘Lignite provides energy security and contributes economically.However,it also causes dirty outcomes in terms of climate aspect.In addition to the energy and climate dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals,there is also a water issue:lignite is usually found submerged below the local groundwater tables.Mining lignite could be exploited to achieve drinkable and agriculturally usable water.In today’s literature,while the impact of lignite production on global warming and emissions are already highly discussed,the water management side of the issue is regularly omitted.However,considering the complex interlink between these three areas(the Water-Energy-Climate(WEC)nexus)is necessary within policy coherence,which is mostly ignored even though it is one of the development targets.Here in this framework,Turkiye,which aims to reduce its heavy dependency on energy imports,is worth studying because almost all of its coal,the country’s largest fossil resource,is lignite.Therefore,this study examines the WEC nexus related to lignite production and combustion and seeks policy coherence between their outputs in the context of Turkiye’s historical steps to climate change mitigation,specifically oriented with the Paris Agreement.This story expands from the absence of specific development policy objectives to the practicalities of politics and economics.
基金This paper is a phased result of the“Research on the Issue of China’s Data Export System”(24SFB3035)a research project of the Ministry of Justice of China on the construction of the rule of law and the study of legal theories at the ministerial level in 2024.
文摘The Fourth Industrial Revolution has endowed the concept of state sovereignty with new era-specific connotations,leading to the emergence of the theory of data sovereignty.While countries refine their domestic legislation to establish their data sovereignty,they are also actively engaging in the negotiation of cross-border data flow rules within international trade agreements to construct data sovereignty.During these negotiations,countries express differing regulatory claims,with some focusing on safeguarding sovereignty and protecting human rights,some prioritizing economic promotion and security assurance,and others targeting traditional and innovative digital trade barriers.These varied approaches reflect the tension between three pairs of values:collectivism and individualism,freedom and security,and tradition and innovation.Based on their distinct value pursuits,three representative models of data sovereignty construction have emerged globally.At the current juncture,when international rules for digital trade are still in their nascent stages,China should timely establish its data sovereignty rules,actively participate in global data sovereignty competition,and balance its sovereignty interests with other interests.Specifically,China should explore the scope of system-acceptable digital trade barriers through free trade zones;integrate domestic and international legal frameworks to ensure the alignment of China’s data governance legislation with its obligations under international trade agreements;and use the development of the“Digital Silk Road”as a starting point to prioritize the formation of digital trade rules with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative,promoting the Chinese solutions internationally.
基金supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61941113,Grant 61971033,and Grant 61671057by the Henan Provincial Department of Science and Technology Project(No.212102210408)by the Henan Provincial Key Scientific Research Project(No.22A520041).
文摘5G technology has endowed mobile communication terminals with features such as ultrawideband access,low latency,and high reliability transmission,which can complete the network access and interconnection of a large number of devices,thus realizing richer application scenarios and constructing 5G-enabled vehicular networks.However,due to the vulnerability of wireless communication,vehicle privacy and communication security have become the key problems to be solved in vehicular networks.Moreover,the large-scale communication in the vehicular networks also makes the higher communication efficiency an inevitable requirement.In order to achieve efficient and secure communication while protecting vehicle privacy,this paper proposes a lightweight key agreement and key update scheme for 5G vehicular networks based on blockchain.Firstly,the key agreement is accomplished using certificateless public key cryptography,and based on the aggregate signature and the cooperation between the vehicle and the trusted authority,an efficient key updating method is proposed,which reduces the overhead and protects the privacy of the vehicle while ensuring the communication security.Secondly,by introducing blockchain and using smart contracts to load the vehicle public key table for key management,this meets the requirements of vehicle traceability and can dynamically track and revoke misbehaving vehicles.Finally,the formal security proof under the eck security model and the informal security analysis is conducted,it turns out that our scheme is more secure than other authentication schemes in the vehicular networks.Performance analysis shows that our scheme has lower overhead than existing schemes in terms of communication and computation.
基金Supported by the National Engineering Research Center of Classified Protection and Safeguard Technology for Cybersecurity(No.C23640-XD-07)the Open Foundation of Key Laboratory of Cyberspace Security of Ministry of Education of China and Henan Key Laboratory of Network Cryptography(No.KLCS20240301)。
文摘With the recent advances in quantum computing,the key agreement algorithm based on traditional cryptography theory,which is applied to the Internet of Things(IoT)scenario,will no longer be secure due to the possibility of information leakage.In this paper,we propose a anti-quantum dynamic authenticated group key agreement scheme(AQDA-GKA)according to the ring-learning with errors(RLWE)problem,which is suitable for IoT environments.First,the proposed AQDA-GKA scheme can implement a group key agreement against quantum computing attacks by leveraging an RLWE-based key agreement mechanism.Second,this scheme can achieve dynamic node management,ensuring that any node can freely join or exit the current group.Third,we formally prove that the proposed scheme can resist quantum computing attacks as well as collusion attacks.Finally,the performance and security analysis reveals that the proposed AQDA-GKA scheme is secure and effective.
文摘Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)are increasingly recognized for their pivotal role in military and civilian applications,serving as essential technology for transmitting,evaluating,and gathering information.Unfortunately,this crucial process often occurs through unsecured wireless connections,exposing it to numerous cyber-physical attacks.Furthermore,UAVs’limited onboard computing resources make it challenging to perform complex cryptographic operations.The main aim of constructing a cryptographic scheme is to provide substantial security while reducing the computation and communication costs.This article introduces an efficient and secure cross-domain Authenticated Key Agreement(AKA)scheme that uses Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography(HECC).The HECC,a modified version of ECC with a smaller key size of 80 bits,is well-suited for use in UAVs.In addition,the proposed scheme is employed in a cross-domain environment that integrates a Public Key Infrastructure(PKI)at the receiving end and a Certificateless Cryptosystem(CLC)at the sending end.Integrating CLC with PKI improves network security by restricting the exposure of encryption keys only to the message’s sender and subsequent receiver.A security study employing ROM and ROR models,together with a comparative performance analysis,shows that the proposed scheme outperforms comparable existing schemes in terms of both efficiency and security.
基金funded by China Arctic and Antarctic Administration(Contract no.JDB2024060701014).
文摘On 19 June 2023,the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction(BBNJ Agreement)was adopted.The BBNJ Agreement aims to regulate the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction,including the high seas and the international seabed area.The BBNJ Agreement enters into an already crowded institutional landscape as a global authority with broad objectives,inevitably interacting with existing institutions,frameworks,and bodies(IFBs).Existing research has primarily focused on two areas:the first examines the impact of the institutions established by the BBNJ Agreement on existing marine governance IFBs;the second explores its influence on issues currently lacking institutional arrangements.However,comparatively little attention has been given to the Agreement’s potential impact on governance gaps within established systems.This paper takes the case of marine genetic resource(MGRs)management in the Antarctic Treaty Area to explore how the BBNJ Agreement may address regulatory gaps in a competent governance framework.Due to shortcomings in addressing core issues,concerning the legal status of MGRs access regulations,benefit-sharing mechanisms,and disclosure of origin,the Agreement is unlikely to have a significant impact on the governance of MGRs in the Antarctic Treaty System(ATS)in the short term.On the other hand,the ATS,as an effective governance framework for the Antarctic Treaty Area,has mature regulations and practical experience in Antarctic governance.Over the years,the ATS has focused on regulating bioprospecting activities as scientific research ones and strict environmental impact assessment procedures.However,there has not been an effective consensus on the regulation of commercial biological prospecting.This paper further explores the coordination issue between the BBNJ Agreement and the ATS,suggesting that in the future,MGRs governance in the Antarctic Treaty Area may evolve into a polycentric governance system.
基金result of the“Research on ESG Supply Chain Governance and Labor Rights Protection”(Project Number SUFE-ESG-20250315)a general subject project of the Fullgoal Institute for ESG Research,SUFE in 2025.
文摘Labor provisions have become a fundamental trade rule in regional and bilateral trade agreements.Although China’s legislation on pilot Free Trade Zones includes content related to labor protection,it primarily aligns with labor indicators in“Doing Business”,the assessment of business situations issued by the World Bank.It differs from the labor rights protection focus emphasized in trade agreements.The latest strategic documents issued by the State Council of China have addressed this issue to fully achieve the goal of aligning Free Trade Zones with high-standard trade agreements.Building on the development of Free Trade Zone legislation and domestic labor law governance,China should proactively explore a tailored approach to labor provisions in Free Trade Agreements.In this approach,it should explicitly define the“baseline”and“ceiling”for labor provisions during negotiations and,within this framework,establish benchmarks for labor rights protection,enforcement mechanisms,and cross-border regulatory mechanisms suited to the specific conditions of the agreement parties.
