Search Results (175)

With the rapid growth of digital interactions, safeguarding user privacy on websites has become a critical concern. This paper introduces a comprehensive framework that integrates both technical and policy-based factors to assess a website’s level of privacy protection. The framework employs a scoring system that evaluates key technical elements, such as HTTP security headers, email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), SSL/TLS certificate usage, domain reputation, DNSSEC, and cookie practices. In parallel, it examines the clarity and GDPR compliance of privacy policies. The resulting score reflects not only the technical strength of a website’s defenses but also the transparency with which data processing practices are communicated to users. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the framework was applied to two similarly sized private hospitals, generating comparative privacy scores under a unified metric. The results confirm the framework’s value in producing measurable insights that enable cross-organizational privacy benchmarking. By combining policy evaluation with technical analysis, this work addresses a significant gap in existing research and offers a reproducible, extensible methodology for assessing website privacy posture from a visitor’s perspective. Full article

Background/Objectives: Worldwide, millions of infants under 6 months are at increased risk of poor growth and development, illness, and death. We investigated the coherence of global policy characteristics, vulnerability, and continuity of care, which guides the care of vulnerable infants under 6 months and their mothers. Methods: We conducted a scoping review according to PRISMA-ScR guidance. We included English publications with no time limit, applicable to low- and middle-income countries, sourced through Google Scholar, contacts, WHO and UNICEF databases, global networks, and agency websites. The search was conducted from August 2023 to February 2024. We identified 34 documents for review. We categorised policies into guidelines, namely, WHO evidence-based recommendations and multi-source guidance documents with implementation details. We consolidated 49 vulnerability descriptors into 28 vulnerability factors and four sub-groups. We did not assess policy quality. Results: We found rich but fragmented global policy guidance. Multiple terminologies create superficial differences and mask important ones. Growth appraisal was mostly limited to nutrition-oriented guidance and was lacking in health-centric documents. Continuity of care lacked scope and depth. WHO policies are out of sync with each other and the latest evidence on mortality risk markers. WHO procedures need to accommodate non-UN documents to leverage existing guidance potential. A living policy system to manage evidence-to-policy processes and policy interactions is needed. The WHO-INTEGRATE evidence for decision frameworks could help country-led adaptations, system-sensitive global support, and WHO methodological development. Conclusions: There are immediate opportunities for interdisciplinary policy cooperation. Action is urgently needed to secure coherent evidence-based policies for equitable and effective care. Full article

Phishing remains a persistent and evolving cyber threat, constantly adapting its tactics to bypass traditional security measures. The advent of Machine Learning (ML) and Neural Networks (NN) has significantly enhanced the capabilities of automated phishing detection systems. This comprehensive review systematically examines the landscape of ML- and NN-based approaches for identifying and mitigating phishing attacks. Our analysis, based on a rigorous search methodology, focuses on articles published between 2017 and 2024 across relevant subject areas in computer science and mathematics. We categorize existing research by phishing delivery channels, including websites, electronic mail, social networking, and malware. Furthermore, we delve into the specific machine learning models and techniques employed, such as various algorithms, classification and ensemble methods, neural network architectures (including deep learning), and feature engineering strategies. This review provides insights into the prevailing research trends, identifies key challenges, and highlights promising future directions in the application of machine learning and neural networks for robust phishing detection. Full article

QR codes (Quick Response) were originally developed by the automotive industry to enable rapid data exchange and have since evolved into versatile tools for commercial applications, such as linking to products or websites. However, the scope of their adoption has expanded into sensitive domains including financial, corporate, and governmental sectors. In order to address increasing security concerns, this work proposes a novel three-layer protection scheme. First, data confidentiality is ensured through encryption—in this study, symmetric AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption is used as an example, though any encryption algorithm can be employed. Second, a multiplexing technique is employed to integrate two independent dichromatic QR codes into a single printed chromatic structure. Third, the recovery of each dichromatic code is achieved through the controlled incidence of specific wavelengths, not only providing improved channel separation but also functioning as a physical access control mechanism. This physical layer restricts unauthorized reading. Full article

This study explores how AI chatbot experiences on travel websites influence consumer engagement, with satisfaction from using AI chatbots as a mediating factor. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, the research shifts the focus from utilitarian models to examine how chatbot attributes—e.g., ease of use, information quality, security, anthropomorphism, and omnipresence—affect satisfaction of using AI chatbots and subsequent consumer engagement behaviours. Survey data from 519 Portuguese travellers were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The study contributes to theory by (1) demonstrating S-O-R’s advantages over utilitarian models in capturing relational and emotional dimensions of AI interactions, (2) identifying satisfaction with using AI chatbots as a pivotal mediator between AI chatbot experience and consumer engagement, and (3) revealing generational disparities in drivers of engagement. Notably, satisfaction strongly influences engagement for Generation X, while direct experience matters more for Generation Z. Millennials exhibit a distinct preference for hybrid human–AI service handoffs. The practical implications include prioritizing natural language processing for ease of use, implementing generational customization (e.g., gamification for Gen Z, reliability assurances for Gen X), and ensuring seamless human escalation for Millennials. These insights equip travel businesses to design AI chatbots that foster long-term loyalty and competitive differentiation. Full article

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) represents a transformative shift in transportation, enabling users to plan, book, and pay for diverse mobility services via a unified digital platform. While previous research has explored factors influencing MaaS adoption, few studies have addressed users’ perspectives, particularly concerning data privacy and cyber security. To address this gap, we conducted an online survey with 320 UK-based participants recruited via Prolific. This study examined psychological, demographic, and perceptual factors influencing individuals’ willingness to adopt MaaS, focusing on cyber security and privacy attitudes, as well as perceived benefits and costs. The results of a hierarchical linear regression model revealed that trust in how commercial websites manage personal data positively influenced willingness to use MaaS, highlighting the indirect role of privacy and security concerns. However, when additional predictors were included, this effect diminished, and perceptions of benefits and costs emerged as the primary drivers of MaaS adoption, with the model explaining 54.5% of variance. These findings suggest that privacy concerns are outweighed by users’ cost–benefit evaluations. The minimal role of trust and security concerns underscores the need for MaaS providers to proactively promote cyber security awareness, build user trust, and collaborate with researchers and policymakers to ensure ethical and secure MaaS deployment. Full article

The Encyclopaedia Cloacae is a novel and centralised digital platform designed to support and advance wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) by cataloguing pathogens detectable in wastewater and their relevance to public health surveillance. The platform is hosted on the EU Wastewater Observatory for Public Health (EU4S) website, where it is populated with peer-reviewed research through a structured workflow under harmonised criteria which address the presence of pathogens in human excreta, detectability in wastewater, and integration into public health systems. This tri-criteria approach ensures that the database is both scientifically robust and operationally actionable. Complemented by the Visualising the Invisible dashboard, the platform offers geospatial insights into global WBE research activity. By consolidating peer-reviewed evidence on pathogen detectability in wastewater and human excreta, the Encyclopaedia Cloacae enables early detection of infectious diseases, whether already known or newly emerging. The continuously updated repository and geospatial dashboards help to identify surveillance gaps and research hotspots, to support timely public health responses, enhance pandemic preparedness, and strengthen global health security. In addition, it supports One Health strategies, connecting the health of humans, animals, and the shared environment. This article outlines the platform’s architecture, data curation methodology, and future directions, including automation and expansion to encompass broader health determinants such as antimicrobial resistance and chemical hazards. Full article

Phishing attacks pose significant risks to security, drawing considerable attention from both security professionals and customers. Despite extensive research, the current phishing website detection mechanisms often fail to efficiently diagnose unknown attacks due to their poor performances in the feature selection stage. Many techniques suffer from overfitting when working with huge datasets. To address this issue, we propose a feature selection strategy based on a convolutional graph network, which utilizes a dataset containing both labels and features, along with hyperparameters for a Support Vector Machine (SVM) and a graph neural network (GNN). Our technique consists of three main stages: (1) preprocessing the data by dividing them into testing and training sets, (2) constructing a graph from pairwise feature distances using the Manhattan distance and adding self-loops to nodes, and (3) implementing a GraphSAGE model with node embeddings and training the GNN by updating the node embeddings through message passing from neighbors, calculating the hinge loss, applying the softmax function, and updating weights via backpropagation. Additionally, we compute the neighborhood random walk (NRW) distance using a random walk with restart to create an adjacency matrix that captures the node relationships. The node features are ranked based on gradient significance to select the top k features, and the SVM is trained using the selected features, with the hyperparameters tuned through cross-validation. We evaluated our model on a test set, calculating the performance metrics and validating the effectiveness of the PhishGNN dataset. Our model achieved a precision of 90.78%, an F1-score of 93.79%, a recall of 97%, and an accuracy of 93.53%, outperforming the existing techniques. Full article

A comparative analysis of testicular tumors in dogs and humans highlights notable similarities in cancer behavior, particularly regarding environmental influences. The ubiquitous distribution of endocrine disruptors in industrialized countries and their effects are strongly linked to the development of testicular cancers. This study examined 221 and 174 cases of testicular tumor in dogs and humans, respectively, from the Campania Animal Cancer Registry and the database of the National Cancer Institute “Fondazione G. Pascale-IRCCS”, between 2020 and 2023. These data were integrated with environmental data from the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security website and the Campania Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPAC). The areas with the highest frequency of testicular tumors in both species were the municipalities of Napoli, Salerno, and Caserta, and their corresponding provinces. The same locations experienced severe contamination of soil and water by environmental pollutants, probably correlated to testicular tumors. Although the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood, our data suggest a strong link between the frequency of testicular tumors in humans and dogs and high concentrations of environmental pollutants in the reported locations. These findings emphasize the value of dogs as a potential animal model for studying human health and the effect of environmental factors on cancer development. Full article

In 2021, the National Centre for Religious Studies in New Zealand published the new religious education curriculum for Catholic schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. While in many ways, very like other religious education curricula, from its naming in Māori before English, Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith shines a light on the role of culture and language in the transmission and expression of faith. This paper is written in two parts. Part 1 of this paper provides an examination of the key curriculum documents and website to find that Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith is unique in three ways. First, it enjoys a level of security in the dominant presence of Catholics in the Catholic school, guaranteed by the Integration Act of 1975. Second, it offers flexibility in approach, necessary for a curriculum with national status, and finally, it demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to the inclusion of Māori culture and language. Part 2 of this paper takes up the inclusion of Māori culture and language to offer a response to the call that Māori need to be allowed to develop a theology from within their own culture and language. It proposes that the introduction of a new hermeneutical lens in the study of scripture, one that would replicate the practice of the Bible authors who drew freely on their own experience and language to speak of God, could provide a simple but effective way of developing such a theology. It is in Part 2 that the significance of the subtitle of this paper will become apparent. Full article

Despite having the world’s largest HIV burden, South Africa has yet to attain the 95-95-95 targets. Accurate, complete, and timely data are critical for monitoring a country’s HIV progress. The integration of unique identifier codes (UICs) for key populations (KPs) into routine health information management systems (RHIMS) strengthens data accuracy and completeness, facilitating more targeted HIV interventions and greater accountability. This systematic review assessed how Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have integrated KPs’ UICs into RHIMS, highlighting key enablers, challenges, and opportunities. A comprehensive search was conducted across PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, PLOS ONE, and various government and non-government websites to identify the published and grey literature relevant to the study objective from June 2013 to December 2024. References were managed using Zotero version 6.0.36. Two authors independently screened studies using Covidence software. The review was done in accordance with the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses” (PRISMA) guidelines and was registered with the “International Prospective Register of PROSPERO) Systematic Reviews” with the registration number CRD42023440656. Out of 1735 studies screened, 361 duplicates were removed. The review found that only nine of the fifty-three SSA countries have incorporated UICs for KPs into their RHIMS through alphanumeric codes. They include Burundi, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Kenya, Uganda, Togo, Malawi, and Liberia. Facilitators for KPs’ UIC adoption included strong data security and political will, whereas barriers encompassed compromised privacy, stigma and discrimination. In South Africa, the UIC for KPs can be integrated into the new electronic medical record (EMR) system. Full article

This study aimed to identify the impact of the e-marketing mix on brand equity in the Jordanian banking sector. This study used a descriptive analysis approach. The study population consisted of all (13) commercial banks in Jordan listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. A random sample of administrative personnel at commercial banks was selected, including administrators and department heads. It was distributed electronically via Google Forms, and 293 questionnaires (79.1%) from the total study sample were retrieved. The SPSS program version 26 was used to examine the collected data. The results showed that there is a statistically significant effect at the level (α ≥ 0.05) of e-marketing on brand equity in the Jordanian banking sector. It was found that there is a positive correlation between e-marketing and the three dimensions of brand equity (brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand image). Moreover, a positive brand image should be maintained through the consistent delivery of promises, excellent customer service, and a strong online reputation. Cultivating brand loyalty among customers can be achieved through personalized services, exclusive rewards, and tailored promotions. By integrating these strategies into their e-marketing efforts, banks can effectively engage with customers, differentiate themselves from competitors, and build long-term relationships. Full article

Digital agriculture has rapidly developed in the last decade in many countries where the share of agricultural production is a significant part of the total volume of gross production. Digital agroecosystems are developed using a variety of IT solutions, software and hardware tools, wired and wireless data transmission technologies, open source code, Open API, etc. A special place in agroecosystems is occupied by electronic payment technologies and blockchain technologies, which allow farmers and other agricultural enterprises to conduct commodity and monetary transactions with suppliers, creditors, and buyers of products. Such ecosystems contribute to the sustainable development of agriculture, agricultural engineering, and management of production and financial operations in the agricultural industry and related industries, as well as in other sectors of the economy of a number of countries. The introduction of crypto solutions in the agricultural sector is designed to create integrated platforms aimed at helping farmers manage supply lines or gain access to financial services. At the same time, there are risks of illegal use of computing power for cryptocurrency mining—cryptojacking. This article offers a thorough risk assessment of cryptojacking attacks on endpoint systems, focusing on identifying critical vulnerabilities within IT infrastructures and outlining practical preventive measures. The analysis examines key attack vectors—including compromised websites, infected applications, and supply chain infiltration—and explores how unauthorized cryptocurrency mining degrades system performance and endangers data security. The research methodology combines an evaluation of current cybersecurity trends, a review of specialized literature, and a controlled experiment simulating cryptojacking attacks. The findings highlight the importance of multi-layered protection mechanisms and ongoing system monitoring to detect malicious activities at an early stage. Full article

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) remains a global health challenge, contributing to chronic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma. In Thailand, HCV prevalence has declined from ~2% in the 1990s due to universal blood screening, harm reduction, and expanded treatment. This narrative review draws on diverse sources—including PubMed and Scopus databases, international and national health websites, government reports, and local communications—to compile epidemiological data, genotype distribution, and elimination strategies, with a focus on Phetchabun province, Thailand, as a model for achieving the World Health Organization’s (WHO) hepatitis C elimination targets. National surveys in 2004, 2014, and 2024 show a prevalence drop from 2.15% to 0.56%. However, HCV persists among high-risk groups, including people who inject drugs, people living with HIV, patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis, and prisoners. Thailand’s National Health Security Office has expanded treatment access, including universal screening for those born before 1992. The Phetchabun Model, launched in 2017, employs a decentralized test-to-treat strategy. By April 2024, 88.64% (288,203/324,916) of the target population was screened, and 4.88% were anti-HCV positive. Among those tested, 72.61% were HCV-RNA positive, and 88.17% received direct-acting antivirals (i.e., SOF/VEL), achieving >96% sustained virological response. The Phetchabun Model demonstrates a scalable approach for HCV elimination. Addressing testing costs, improving access, and integrating microelimination strategies into national policy are essential to achieving the WHO’s 2030 goals. Full article

With the development of electronic retailing in C2C e-commerce platforms, the issue of trust loss from sellers has worsened. It is urgent for platform operators to learn how to retain quality sellers and improve their trust. Based on institutional trust theory, we combine formal institutions (structural assurance) and informal institutions (cultural factors), intending to examine the direct effects of masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation on platform trust, the moderating effects of website quality, institutional guarantee and security systems, and the relationships among cultural factors. A total of 2970 valid responses were collected and analyzed from individual sellers on Taobao, which is one of the most representative C2C e-commerce platforms in China. The results reveal that uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with platform trust, while masculinity and long-term orientation are positively associated with platform trust. Significant associations are also found among cultural factors. Website quality and institutional guarantee weaken the negative correlation between uncertainty avoidance and platform trust, while the security system strengthens it. Details of theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Full article