International Telecommunication Union

Introduction: Significant disparities remain between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in access to pacemaker therapy. In LMICs, the high cost of devices and limited healthcare infrastructure lead to preventable deaths. Addressing this inequity requires innovative and ethical solutions. Pacemaker reuse by retrieving, testing, re-sterilizing, and re-implanting devices, offers a cost-effective, sustainable, and ethical alternative. Despite robust evidence demonstrating its safety, reuse remains limited due to regulatory and legal concerns. Fears of infection, device failure, and liability have hindered broader adoption, even though properly reprocessed pacemakers have been shown to be safe. Objective: To describe a 50-year humanitarian program led by a French NGO, which has distributed re-sterilized pacemakers to LMICs and trained local providers in cardiac pacing. Methods: STIM Développement is a French NGO promoting access to cardiac rhythm management in LMICs through medical training and the distribution of reprocessed pacemakers to patients in need. Devices were collected post-mortem and sent to the NGO by various hospitals. Each underwent strict quality control, including 1) visual inspection, 2) programmer interrogation to assess battery life and detect malfunctions, and 3) review of implant date and voltage to estimate remaining longevity. Sterilization followed an FDA-approved protocol: cleaning with pipe cleaners, isopropyl alcohol bath, overnight soak in enzyme solution (1:128 concentration), 70% ethanol wipe, air drying, gas-permeable packaging, and 8-hour ethylene oxide gas sterilization. Devices were shipped based on demand, often with training support for local medical teams. Results: From 1974 to 2024, 18,615 pacemakers were distributed to 29 countries. Distribution peaked in the early 2000s (600 units/year) but declined to around 150/year due to legal and regulatory challenges. Early recipients included India, Romania, and several African nations. Infection rates remained negligible, with no adverse events reported in recent FDA-monitored trials. Conclusion: Pacemaker reuse is a safe, effective, and scalable strategy to address unmet needs in LMICs. Wider adoption requires international regulatory harmonization, legal safeguards, and public awareness. The recent FDA approval of re-sterilization protocols may help renew global efforts and expand access to this life-saving therapy.

According to the International Telecommunications Standard, Quality of Service (QOS) refers to the ability of a system to meet the requirements for providing a type of telecommunications service, particularly with regard to access, integrity, and continuity. QoS requirements will change radically with the transition from 5G to 6G. 6G will support different applications, such as ultra-low latency communications (URLLC), massive machine-to-machine communications (mMTC), and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB). In this article, we will look at the QoS challenges and solutions for 6G networks, which are being realized through the use of advanced technologies. Additionally, we will discuss the systems needed to meet the QoS requirements for sustainable and, above all, flexible data transport.

The use of micrografts (MCGs) containing human follicle mesenchymal stem cells (HF-MSCs) is a hair loss (HL) treatment that needs to be standardized as seems to have promising effects on hair regrowth (HR-G) also thanks to the presence of extracellular vesicles (EVs). The study aims to report both the in vivo results, obtained in patients affected by androgenic alopecia (AGA) treated using MCGs, and in vitro analysis characterizing the EVs. A multicentric, retrospective, observational, evaluator-blinded study was conducted. Eighty-three AGA patients were initially enrolled [52 suffering from male pattern hair loss (MPHL) at stages I-III vertex by the Norwood-Hamilton scale and 31 suffering from female PHL (FPHL) at stages I-II by the Ludwig scale]. Sixty patients (20 females and 40 males) were treated and analyzed after exclusion and inclusion criteria assessment. The in vivo HR-G was evaluated through photography, physician's, and patient's global assessment scales, in addition to standardized photo-trichograms, during a follow-up for 1 year, while the in vitro analysis was performed through a quantitative, morphological, and dimensional characterization of the EVs population using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescent microscopy. A hair density (HD) increase of 28 ± 4hairs/cm2 at T4 after 12 months in the targeted area (TA) of FPHL, compared with the baseline, was observed using computerized trichograms with a statistically significant difference (SSD) in hair regrowth (HR-G) (p = 0.0429). Regarding MPHL, an HD increase of 30 ± 5hairs/cm2 at T4 after 12 months in the TA was observed with an SSD in HR-G (p = 0.0012). The presence of EVs and their interaction with the surrounding cellular population were demonstrated. MCGs containing HF-MSCs and exosomes may fill in as a safe and viable alternative treatment against HL in mild and moderate degrees of AGA both in MPHL and in FPHL. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is a specialized agency in the United Nations that regulates and manages information and communications technologies. The ITU's Radiocommunication (ITU-R) Sector is tasked with "[ensuring] rational, equitable, efficient and economical use of the radio-frequency [RF] spectrum by all radiocommunication services, including those using satellite orbits, and to carry out studies and adopt recommendations on radiocommunication matters." The ITU Radio Regulations developed and maintained by the ITU-R contain provisions applicable to the use and sharing of RF spectrum in outer space by various services, including communications, radiolocation, and radio astronomy. In particular, observatories in the Shielded Zone of the Moon [SZM] are of great interest to the radio astronomy community due to the absence of man-made noise sources that can impede data collections, thus offering the potential for observations of more distant objects as compared with Earth-based observatories. This paper summarizes the provisions in the ITU Radio Regulations generally pertaining to outer space uses of RF spectrum as well as specifically pertaining to the protection of radio astronomy applications in the SZM.

This work is based on the wireless sensor networks (WSN), which contain an insufficient number of device nodes, regularly similarly stated nodes or sensors, and sensor knots that are associated with all other wireless communications. There are numerous assumptions or overall possessions of WSNs, and a lot more applications of WSNs around the creation are presented, making it unbearable to protect all their application areas. Applications of WSNs span ecological and animal monitoring, factory and manufacturing monitoring, farming monitoring and mechanization, healthiness monitoring, and many other areas. One of the most characteristics of WSNs is that they are strongly coupled with their application. In this chapter, WI-MAX without wormhole attack is explained, and the related results are explained with their outputs The NS2 evaluation system is applied to production out of all imitations.

Work on International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) has been ongoing for nearly three decades in ITU. This has been an open process which has included ITU’s Member States, national and regional standards development organizations, equipment manufacturers, network operators, as well as academia and industry forums.

Artificial intelligence can enhance our ability to manage natural disasters. However, understanding and addressing its limitations is required to realize its benefits. Here, we argue that interdisciplinary, multistakeholder, and international collaboration is needed for developing standards that facilitate its implementation.

Participation, a key component of strategy work, is examined to focus on bottom-up strategy work in this longitudinal study based on ob¬servations of a global firm’s strategy workshop. Results show some middle managers are better positioned than others to engage in strategy work because of previous international experience, prior strategy-workshop insights, and cultural, behavioral, and personality traits. A typology of strategist profiles identify those who characteristically participate, and associated vignettes reveal participation approaches. The research concludes strategy-workshop proposal consideration and adoption are subject to the participant’s identity, adding to the debate on the role identity plays in strategizing practices.