Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Barriers and facilitators to timely birth-dose vaccines in Kinshasa Province, the DRC: a qualitative study

National vaccine policies across the world have successfully improved infant vaccine coverage, but birth-dose (BD) vaccine coverage remains low. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) aim to include the hepatitis B birth-dose (HepB-BD) vaccine in their national immunization schedule. HepB-BD’s short window for administration – within 24 hours of delivery to prevent mother-to-child transmission – adds to the complexity of streamlined and timely BD vaccines. This study aims to identify and understand barriers and facilitators to timely delivery of BD vaccine in Kinshasa Province, DRC, through individuals’ accounts with different perspectives on the uptake of the BD vaccine in preparation for its future roll-out. We conducted semi-structured interviews in seven health facilities across Kinshasa Province from June to July 2021. We purposefully sampled health facilities from the provinces’ five most prominent facility types—private, public, Catholic, Protestant, and not-for-profit. We interviewed decision-makers and/or providers from various levels of the health care continuum, including midwives, immunization staff, heads of maternity and immunizations, and vaccine officials at the health zone and the Programme Elargi de Vaccination (PEV) to understand administrative barriers to BD vaccines. We also conducted interviews with expectant mothers to elicit knowledge and perceptions about infant vaccines. We interviewed 30 participants (16 informants and 14 expectant mothers). Interviewees were recruited from 7 health facilities, 2 health zones, and PEV. Data analysis was guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Our analysis identified 13 constructs (2-3 per domain) related to the success of timely and streamlined BD vaccines. We found significant barriers within and across each domain; most notably, the multi-dose vials of existing BD vaccines determining when facility staff could vaccinate newborns, often resulting in untimely vaccinations; logistical concerns with regular national vaccine stockouts and ability to store vaccines; complex and unsynchronized vaccine fees across facilities; inadequate communication across delivery and vaccination wards; and limited and at times incorrect understanding of vaccines among mothers and other community members. Using the CFIR framework, this study integrated perspectives from facility informants and expectant mothers to inform national policy and implementation of the HepB-BD in DRC. These stakeholder-driven findings should guide the streamlining of timely BD vaccinations upon HepB-BD implementation.
Knowledge about Obstetric Danger Signs and Related Factors in Reproductive-Age Women in the Southeast Zone of Tigray, 2021: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Pregnancy complications are the major health problems among women in developing countries. Globally, around 295,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes annually and 86% of these maternal deaths happen in developing countries. Objective To assess knowledge of obstetric danger signs among reproductive-age women living in southeastern zone of Tigray Region, Ethiopia, 2021. Methods A community-based quantitative cross-sectional survey was undertaken in southeastern zone of Tigray. A multistage random sampling technique was implemented to select total participants of 410 reproductive-age women. Two districts were randomly selected, and from those districts, 12 kebeles were selected randomly, and the calculated sample size (410) was proportionally allocated to each selected kebel. The data were collected by using face-to-face interview with a structured questionnaire from January 20 to February 20/2021 after ensuring that all requirements of ethical considerations were fulfilled. The collected data were entered into EpiData version 4.2 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics with frequency, percentage, table and graph, and cross-tabulation were used for presentation of result. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were used to examine the association. Odds ratios with 95% confidence interval and P value < 0.05 were used to determine the statistical association. Result Four hundred ten reproductive-age women participated in the study making a response rate of 100%. Leakage of fluid per vagina was the most commonly mentioned obstetric danger signs (61%). Overall, one hundred seventy-two (42%) had good knowledge on obstetric danger sign. Educational status of the mother (AOR (95%CI = 2.7 (1.189-6.24))), site of delivery (AOR (95%CI = 2.2 (1.6-3.432))), and having history of an ANC follow-up (AOR (95%CI = 2.4 (1.13-5.6))) were found to be independent predictors of knowledge of women about the obstetric danger sign. Conclusion and Recommendation. Educational status of the mother site of delivery and having history of an ANC follow-up were independently associated with knowledge of women about obstetric danger signs. Thus, provision of the Information, Education and Communication targeting women, family, and the general community on obstetric danger signs and associated factors was recommended.
Electronic-Based English Qualifying Test (EQT): Students’ Perception and Motivation

In keeping up with the Gen Y and Gen Z students who are now populating our higher education system, the Academy of Language Studies has adopted an electronic-based English Qualifying Test (EQT) to measure students' English proficiency. The success of implementing EQT is vital since it is a nationwide exercise involving all UiTM campuses. The purpose of this study is to investigate students' perceptions of their recent experiences after participating in EQT. A total of 1721 UiTM Interim Diploma students enrolled in the May-August 2017 semester participated in the study. The study employed a quantitative method, using a set of online survey to gather information on respondents' perceptions of the overall implementation of the e-assessment, the design and layout of the e-system. The survey was also conducted to obtain information on their motivational influences after taking the eassessment. The findings indicate that the time allocation of the EQT test was sufficient; whilst, the implementation of the test was well organised. The time allotted in the EQT enables the students to have full control of going through the test items, check their answers and submit them on time. Factors such as technical support in the lab, computer equipment, network capabilities and lecturers' readiness, all contributed to the successful implementation of the EQT assessment.
Mean Arterial Pressure Goal in Critically Ill Patients: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Current guidelines recommend targeting a mean arterial pressure (MAP) goal of 65 mm Hg or more in critically ill medical patients. Prospective studies have shown that a higher MAP goal can improve survival and decrease end-organ damage. However, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have failed to show similar results. Thus, we performed this meta-analysis to evaluate whether a high MAP goal compared to a standard or low MAP goal will improve clinical outcomes in critically ill medical patients. Methods We searched electronic databases for RCTs comparing standard MAP goals versus high MAP goals in critically ill medical patients. A standard MAP goal was defined as a MAP of 60 - 70 mm Hg, and a MAP of 70 mm Hg or more was considered a high MAP goal. Outcomes of interest were mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation, and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay. Subgroup analysis was performed based on the type of critically ill patients: cardiac arrest and septic shock. We used random-effects meta-analysis to estimate risk ratio (RR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) for a dichotomous outcome. For continuous outcomes, the inverse variance method was used to calculate the standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% CI. A P value of 0.05 or less was considered significant. Results Six RCTs with a total of 3,753 patients (standard MAP goal: n = 1,872 and high MAP goal: n = 1,881) were included in the final analysis. Both standard/low MAP goal and high MAP goal were associated with similar risk for mortality (RR 0.94, 95% CI (0.87, 1.01), P = 0.11), duration of mechanical ventilation (SMD 0.51, 95% CI (-0.29, 1.31), P = 0.21) and ICU length of stay (SMD 0.22, 95% CI (-0.07, 0.5), P = 0.14). Subgroup analysis in cardiac arrest patient showed decreased ICU stay (SMD 0.55, 95% CI (0.31, 0.80), P < 0.000001) in patients with higher MAP goal compared to the standard MAP goal group without any difference in mortality or duration of mechanical ventilation. Subgroup analysis of patients with septic shock had similar outcomes in both MAP targets. Conclusions In critically ill patients, a higher MAP goal of > 70 mm Hg was associated with a similar risk of mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation, and ICU length of stay when compared with a standard MAP goal of 60 - 70 mm Hg.
Goal Question Metric as an Interdisciplinary Tool for Assessing Mobile Learning Application

—Assessing the mobile learning application among interdisciplinary researchers is a non-trivial task. Mandarin Learning App is a Mandarin 3D game tailor-made for students who choose PBC1033 Mandarin Language Level 1 as an elective course. It is an interdisciplinary project which it involves researchers from software engineering, computational science/mathematics and the Faculty of Language studies. In the project, the software engineer focuses on producing a quality application mostly through usability studies; the language teacher focuses on students’ study performance upon using the Mandarin Learning App and the mathematician focuses on finding the statistical data dependency of collected data through the various statistical packages. Hence, we are facing issues like how to reach a consensus in working on assessing the Mandarin 3D games? How to enable the discussion among the researchers; how to consolidate the results so that we can understand? We introduce Goal Question Metric to tackle these issues. In this paper, we demonstrate how Goal Question Metric is used to form a holistic view of assessing requirements on mobile applications and guide the discussion and reach consensus in analyzing the results of the evaluation. The contribution of this paper is to introduce Goal Question Metric as an interdisciplinary tool while assessing the mobile learning application. With Goal Question Metric, we demonstrate how it can structure the assessment from a different viewpoint in a comprehensive and systematic manner; 1) better structure of the experiments, 2) able to reach consensus among researchers from different disciplines, 3) able to analyze the dependencies among various experiments and 4) able to find hidden results.
Long Non-coding RNAs: Pivotal Epigenetic Regulators in Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a severe complication of diabetes; however, its mechanism is not fully understood. Evidence has recently revealed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are abnormally expressed in DR, and lncRNAs may function as pivotal regulators. LncRNAs are able to modulate gene expression at the epigenetic level by acting as scaffolds of histone modification complexes and sponges of binding with microRNAs (miRNAs). LncRNAs are believed to be important epigenetic regulators, which may become beneficial in the diagnosis and therapy of DR. However, the mechanisms of lncRNAs in DR are still unclear. In this review, we summarize the possible functions and mechanisms of lncRNAs in epigenetic regulation to target genes in the progression of DR.
InP HEMT amplifier development for G-band (140-220 GHz) applications

In this paper we describe a unique InP HEMT MMIC process that has been developed for the demonstration of the first ever G-band (140-220 GHz) amplifiers. This process combines enhanced InP HEMT profiles with a 70 nm T-gate process and a dry via etch process to achieve a high maximum gain of greater than 8 dB at 200 GHz and the highest gain amplifiers ever demonstrated (15 dB at 215 GHz).
Parameter Optimization of Nonlinear Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting System for IoT Applications

—The vibrational energy harvesting has been essentially applied to power up low-power electronics, microsystems, and wireless sensors especially in the areas of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This paper investigates the prospect of incorporating nonlinearity in a unimorph piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip magnet placed under a harmonic base excitation in IoT enabled environment. An empirical and theoretical analysis on the impact of various parameters such as spacing distance between magnets, presence of magnetic tip mass and positioning of vibrational source on the frequency response output was performed. It was observed that the largest spectrum of frequency can be produced when at the lowest resonant frequency of the cantilever. The positioning of vibrational source deeply impacts the hysteresis region and frequency range in realizing broadband energy harvesting. The inclusiveness of vibration source on both the cantilever beam as well as the external magnets impacts the energy harvester in terms of frequency range and the minimal distance for bistable condition.
PI Consensus-Based Integrated Distributed Control of MMC-MTDC Systems

This paper proposes a Proportional-Integral (PI) consensus-based integrated distributed control (IDC) for modular multilevel converter-based multi-terminal high-voltage direct current (MMC-MTDC) to regulate voltage and achieve power sharing. First, the paper analyzes the estimated voltage error of the conventional MTDC voltage observer under communication delay. To solve this problem, the paper proposes a novel voltage observer based on PI consensus to observe the global average voltage of MTDC. It improves the resilience of the voltage regulation controller to the communication delay. Then a distributed controller that integrates power sharing and voltage regulation is further proposed to reduce the amount of state information exchanged by the communication network. The power control converter exchanges the status information representing the voltage deviation with the adjacent converters, while the voltage control converter exchanges the status information representing the power status information and the power distribution difference with the adjacent converters. Moreover, a small-signal model is established and the influence of distributed controller on the dynamics of MMC-MTDC system is studied. Simulation cases are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed IDC for MMC-MTDC system.
Integrated scheduling of order picking operations under dynamic order arrivals

To remain competitive in the current e-commerce environment, warehouses are expected to handle customer orders as efficiently and quickly as possible. Previous research on order picking in a static context has shown that integrating batching, routing and scheduling decisions leads to better results than addressing these planning problems individually. In this study we propose an integrated solution approach that is able to deal with dynamic order arrivals, a problem often encountered in practice. Furthermore, we demonstrate the need to anticipate on future order arrivals to keep customer service levels high. We develop a new large neighbourhood search algorithm to solve the online, integrated batching, routing and scheduling problem. First, the algorithm is shown to outperform the current state-of-the-art static solution algorithm. Next, we develop an experimental design based on real-life data, to test the applicability of the model in different settings. The results of this experimental design are used to obtain insights on the particularity of this online, integrated problem. The effect of several real-life characteristics is demonstrated by using an ANOVA, leading to several managerial insights that may help companies to operate efficiently without jeopardising customer satisfaction.
Memantine in the Prevention of Radiation-Induced Brain Damage: A Narrative Review

Simple Summary Decline in cognitive function is a major problem for patients undergoing whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Scientific interest has increased due to the high dropout rate of patients in the first months after WBRT and the early onset of cognitive decline. Therefore, the study of antiglutamatergic pharmacological prophylaxis and hippocampal-sparing WBRT techniques has been deepened based on the knowledge of the mechanisms of hyperglutamatergic neurotoxicity and the role of some hippocampal areas in cognitive decline. In order to provide a summary of the evidence in this field, and to foster future research in this setting, this literature review presents current evidence on the prevention of radiation-induced cognitive decline and particularly on the role of memantine. Abstract Preserving cognitive functions is a priority for most patients with brain metastases. Knowing the mechanisms of hyperglutamatergic neurotoxicity and the role of some hippocampal areas in cognitive decline (CD) led to testing both the antiglutamatergic pharmacological prophylaxis and hippocampal-sparing whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) techniques. These studies showed a relative reduction in CD four to six months after WBRT. However, the failure to achieve statistical significance in one study that tested memantine alone (RTOG 0614) led to widespread skepticism about this drug in the WBRT setting. Moreover, interest grew in the reasons for the strong patient dropout rates in the first few months after WBRT and for early CD onset. In fact, the latter can only partially be explained by subclinical tumor progression. An emerging interpretation of the (not only) cognitive impairment during and immediately after WBRT is the dysfunction of the limbic and hypothalamic system with its immune and hormonal consequences. This new understanding of WBRT-induced toxicity may represent the basis for further innovative trials. These studies should aim to: (i) evaluate in greater detail the cognitive effects and, more generally, the quality of life impairment during and immediately after WBRT; (ii) study the mechanisms producing these early effects; (iii) test in clinical studies, the modern and advanced WBRT techniques based on both hippocampal-sparing and hypothalamic-pituitary-sparing, currently evaluated only in planning studies; (iv) test new timings of antiglutamatergic drugs administration aimed at preventing not only late toxicity but also acute effects.
Hack the Stack: Using Snort and Ethereal to Master The 8 Layers of An Insecure Network

This book looks at network security in a new and refreshing way. It guides readers step-by-step through the "stack" -- the seven layers of a network. Each chapter focuses on one layer of the stack along with the attacks, vulnerabilities, and exploits that can be found at that layer. The book even includes a chapter on the mythical eighth layer: The people layer. This book is designed to offer readers a deeper understanding of many common vulnerabilities and the ways in which attackers exploit, manipulate, misuse, and abuse protocols and applications. The authors guide the readers through this process by using tools such as Ethereal (sniffer) and Snort (IDS). The sniffer is used to help readers understand how the protocols should work and what the various attacks are doing to break them. IDS is used to demonstrate the format of specific signatures and provide the reader with the skills needed to recognize and detect attacks when they occur. What makes this book unique is that it presents the material in a layer by layer approach which offers the readers a way to learn about exploits in a manner similar to which they most likely originally learned networking. This methodology makes this book a useful tool to not only security professionals but also for networking professionals, application programmers, and others. All of the primary protocols such as IP, ICMP, TCP are discussed but each from a security perspective. The authors convey the mindset of the attacker by examining how seemingly small flaws are often the catalyst of potential threats. The book considers the general kinds of things that may be monitored that would have alerted users of an attack. * Remember being a child and wanting to take something apart, like a phone, to see how it worked? This book is for you then as it details how specific hacker tools and techniques accomplish the things they do. * This book will not only give you knowledge of security tools but will provide you the ability to design more robust security solutions * Anyone can tell you what a tool does but this book shows you how the tool works
Agregação de Dados na Nuvem com Garantias de Segurança e Privacidade

O uso da computação na nuvem tem se tornado comum por vantagens como baixo custo e contratação de recursos de acordo com a demanda. Todavia, surgem preocupações com segurança e privacidade, pois dados críticos – especialmente em aplicações de IoT – são armazenados e processados na nuvem. Este artigo propõe uma arquitetura de software com suporte a múltiplas abordagens para a agregação segura de dados. O uso dessa arquitetura se mostrou viável em experimentos realizados com a utilização de técnicas de criptografia homomórfica e de extensões de segurança em hardware (Intel SGX), que, segundo nossas pesquisas, ainda não havia sido aplicado em um ambiente de nuvem.
Survey in Smartphone Malware Analysis Techniques

Smartphone Malware continues to be a serious threat in today's world. Recent research studies investigate the impacts of new malware variant. Historically traditional anti-malware analyses rely on the signatures of predefined malware samples. However, this technique is not resistant against the obfuscation techniques (e.g. polymorphic and metamorphic). While the permission system proposed by Google, requires smartphone users to pay attention to the permission description during the installation time. Nevertheless, normal users cannot comprehend the semantics of Android permissions. This chapter surveys various approaches used in Smartphone malware detection and Investigates weaknesses of existing countermeasures such as signature-based and anomaly-based detection.
Data Sharing without Rewards in Multi-Task Ofﬂine Reinforcement Learning

Ofﬂine reinforcement learning (RL) bears the promise to learn effective control policies from static datasets but is thus far unable to learn from large databases of heterogeneous experience. The multi-task version of ofﬂine RL enables the possibility of learning a single policy that can tackle multiple tasks and allows the algorithm to share ofﬂine data across tasks. Recent works indicate that sharing data between tasks can be highly beneﬁcial in multi-task learning. However, these beneﬁts come at a cost – for data to be shared between tasks, each transition must be annotated with reward labels corresponding to other tasks. This is particularly expensive and unscalable, since the manual effort in annotating reward grows quadratically with the number of tasks. Can we retain the beneﬁts of data sharing without requiring reward relabeling for every task pair? In this paper, we show that, perhaps surprisingly, under a binary-reward assumption, simply utilizing data from other tasks with constant reward labels can not only provide substantial improvement over only using the single-task data and previously proposed success classiﬁers, but it can also reach comparable performance to baselines that take advantage of the oracle multi-task reward information. We also show that this performance can be further improved by selectively deciding which transitions to share, again without introducing any additional models or classiﬁers. We discuss how these approaches relate to each other and baseline strategies under various assumptions on the dataset. Our empirical results show that it leads to improved performance across a range of different multi-task ofﬂine RL scenarios, including robotic manipulation from visual inputs and ant-maze navigation.