bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Network Slicing and the Role of 5G in IoT Applications
Authors: Sharma Ashish , Kumar Sunil
Published: October 2020

The research and development along the 5th generation are moving with extreme speed around the global world. In this paper, the authors are going put light on the concepts of network slicing architecture of the 5G network at multi-level stages. The network slicing concept is another challenge faced by the 5G network. Further, the broad description of 5G architecture and analysis on infrastructure design and applications of network slicing in terms of 5G are done. This technique plays a major part in 5G technology deals with virtualization and software-defined technology. Due to low latency and its explosive growth, it is a technology to look into the deep knowledge it inculcates within. The chapter also focuses on the applications that the industry is looking into, and it has made a large impact on the user's life. With quantitative examples to show, this research will give a proper estimation for network slicing networking.
“Just a Stupid Carrot Farm, Dumb Bunny”
Authors: Bindewald Jill
Published: October 2020

This qualitative content analysis takes a critical media literacy approach to analyze and evaluate representations of rural people and places in the movie Zootopia. The chapter begins with a definition of critical media literacy and discussion of representations of rural people and places in popular culture. Next, the author analyzes and evaluates the themes that emerged throughout the critical inquiry. Zootopia conveys the following themes: a lack of opportunity through narratives of outmigration, romantic notions of rurality, exaggerations of urban violence, and portrayals of farming as the lowest status profession. The researcher provides a pedological tool for critiquing the film through reflection and action for teachers' use with students called BAAM.
Exploring Science Fictional Futures With Secondary Students
Authors: Tomin Brittany , Jenson Jennifer
Published: October 2020

Science fiction (SF), while enjoying unprecedented success in popular culture, continues to be an under-utilized resource in K-12 education. This chapter details the results of an in-school study on the use of SF in secondary school courses, examining how SF can be used as a pedagogical tool by educators to help students explore fictional futures in the context of contemporary issues, with a particular focus on developing critical thinking and critical literacy competencies. This study was designed to address the gap in pedagogical resources on teaching SF, and the dearth of research on potential benefits of teaching with SF in secondary English classrooms in particular. The aim of this chapter will therefore be to provide a research-informed overview of the benefits of integrating SF texts into secondary English classrooms, and to offer suggestions for educators.
Using Fan Fiction to Bridge Students' Understanding of Science
Authors: Jennings LaShay , Moran Renee M. , Pierce Blake
Published: October 2020

The purpose of this chapter was to present current literature focused on integrating science and literacy and describe the teaching of a science unit of study that incorporated fanfiction literature in a fourth-grade classroom. Ms. Bardon's instructional techniques were focused on integrating science learning with reading and writing based within a fictional text read together as a classroom community throughout the unit of science study. The unit of study was presented alongside background literature to illustrate how such teaching is indicative of a larger movement in the educational field toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based pedagogy and curriculum. The account of teaching was presented according to the close reading of the fictional text, the hands-on science activities, and the culminating student writing of a fanfiction narrative that constituted the assessment of science learning.
Videogames and Sensory Theory
Authors: Goode Kaila , Vasinda Sheri
Published: October 2020

The act of playing video games is a multimodal experience, immersing the gamer in a sensorial experience in the digital world. Video games incorporate sensory literacies such as haptics, graphics, sound effects, music, auditory dialogue, visual text, and character movement. The sensory literacies allow gamers to connect the digital world to the physical world, becoming engrossed in the world and story of the video game. Thus, due to the multimodal and sensorial nature of video games, they have the potential to be a beneficial tool for increasing student engagement within the classroom and assisting students in further increasing literacy skills and content knowledge. In addition, a review of literature of classroom use of video games as an instructional tool found increased engagement, use of video games as texts, cross-literacies that supported traditional literacy processes and skills.
Cultivating Social Justice Through Explorations of Multimodal Pop Culture Texts
Authors: Stufft Carolyn
Published: October 2020

Middle level and secondary students' understanding of social justice can be cultivated through educators' inclusion of multimodal texts in the curriculum. By engaging in critical literacy through ongoing analyses of music lyrics, poetry, and prose related to social justice, students can develop a deeper understanding of the presence/lack of social justice in previous historical eras as well as its role today. Educators can ensure that formal explorations of issues surrounding social justice, such as race and socioeconomic status, become part of the curriculum through the inclusion of relevant multimodal texts. This chapter presents a variety of multimodal pop culture texts—including novels and song lyrics—that can be included in a middle school or high school curriculum focused on social justice education.
Developing a Metaphor for Self-Managed Organizations
Authors: Montaudon-Tomás Cynthia M. , Pinto-López Ingrid N.
Published: October 2020

This chapter presents the Avocado metaphor for advanced value organizations (AVOs) based on emergent, hybrid, and self-maturing temporary organizational theories. The metaphor was constructed through bricolage, bringing in concepts and ideas from different areas. AVOs develop as a response to ever-changing business environments, which are more and more often transiting towards new ways of working, primarily projects. Avocado organizations reflect the global trend of smaller organizational designs creating organizations within organizations and teams of teams. Research is theoretical. It includes a general view on metaphors and their importance in organizational theory. Special attention is given to the definition of advanced value organizations, emergent theories, hybrid organizational designs, organizational lifecycles, and maturing processes, as well as temporary organizations and new working arrangements based mainly on projects. The avocado metaphor is explained in every section allowing a better understanding of how it can be used to describe modern-day organizations.
Knowledge Management and Its Relationship With Organizational Maturity Processes
Authors: Moreno-Monsalve Nelson , Delgado-Ortiz Sandra
Published: October 2020

In a business context characterized by constant change, companies highlight management models focused on the growth of people and, derived from this, on the generation and proper management of knowledge. In this sense, business leaders have understood that the adoption of good management practices within companies is an incremental process, framed in time and backed by the ability to learn their employees have. Therefore, business maturity could be understood as a constant process of transformation, in which the knowledge that resides in the workers is the main piece to reach an optimum level of excellence. The research work aims to highlight the importance of knowledge management models in organizational maturity processes, specifically with respect to the cycle of adoption of good project management practices. This study is supported by a thorough bibliographic review that allows us to contrast organizational learning capacity with the ability to adopt good practices.
Quality Models and Systems in Relation to the Automotive Sector in Colombia
Authors: Prada Ricardo , Ocampo Pablo
Published: October 2020

Quality management systems (QMS) have evolved in parallel with the concept of quality itself. The standardization of the requirements beyond the ISO 9001 standard makes the fulfillment of the suppliers and the relationship with the main clients much easier. Therefore, other criteria and/or standards have been developed that generally refer to documents published by national or international standards bodies. This work explores the situation of the main models and standards used in the automotive industry and especially in the manufacturing companies of the auto parts sector. In this case, the most commonly used models are the European Foundation for Quality Award (EFQM) in Europe, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) in the USA, Deming Prize in Japan and Asia, among others.
Sustainability and Competitiveness in SMEs in the Apparel Sector
Authors: Barrera Díaz José Vicente
Published: October 2020

This chapter shows the results of studying the relationship of three microeconomic variables—cost, price, and quality of products—in Apparel SMEs in the city of Bogotá. The findings allow the authors to conclude that there is a narrow correlation between said variables, which determines that entrepreneurs in the sector must complete previous analyses and put strategies to maintain productivity, competitiveness, and sustainability in international markets in place before deciding to export their products. The development of a country can be reached if its companies reach it as well. It is understood that, for some managers and business owners, the initiative to export is a path to reach greater coverage and profitability, a complicated task given that it requires that companies better their levels of competitiveness measured by various independent factors. The study concludes by showing some tools that relate the aforementioned variables and that may better the competitiveness of SMEs with a focus on exportation.
Competitiveness in Colombian MSMEs
Authors: Torres Michael , Patiño-Castro Omar
Published: October 2020

Competitiveness has become an obsession for companies and nations, since it is a way of showing the degree of development and the productive capacity that a country has. Throughout this chapter, this concept is related to small and medium-sized companies, which are a large part of a nation's business fabric but do not have very high competitive rates. With the analysis of this variable in this category of companies, it is intended to generate strategies that allow increasing competitiveness in companies of limited size and capacity, in order to achieve their strengthening and greater presence in national and international markets. The main focus of this chapter will be on Colombian companies that are in this type of company, through the review of bibliography and indicators of national and international competitiveness.
An Overview of Internet of Things Technology Applied on Precision Agriculture Concept
Authors: França Reinaldo Padilha , Monteiro Ana Carolina Borges , Arthur Rangel , Iano Yuzo
Published: October 2020

The internet of things (IoT) is characterized by devices that communicate without human interference, sending and receiving data online, to which they have shaped the way of connecting household appliances, machines, and equipment, cars, among other things, also arriving at the field through characterized by the communication between devices, sensors, drones, and machines. They have great potential to improve production processes, making agriculture increasingly digital, creating solutions, connectivity, and training for specialist labor. As well as irrigation systems and other intelligent machines with the ability to talk to each other enabling management in the use of energy, resources, and inputs making the production process more efficient. Precision agriculture encompasses a series of components and factors from which the best procedures can be chosen that are appropriate in a given agricultural operation that effectively meets your needs, also related to the application of inputs at the right time and in the right place, following the growth and productivity over the entire length of a plantation by controlling pests, among other technologies, providing a reduction in production costs and spending on inputs, reducing the pollution of nature by the pesticides used, making it possible to reduce operating costs, increasing precision in obtaining results in the same way as less variability in production. Therefore, this chapter aims to provide an updated overview and review of the use of the internet of things in the precision agriculture system showing and approaching its success relation, with a concise bibliographic background, categorizing and synthesizing the potential of both technologies.
Towards Fully Automated Decision-Making Systems for Precision Agriculture
Authors: Sophocleous Marios
Published: October 2020

As the world population increases, food demands continue with it. This puts the challenge to feed the world in a continuously rising priority position, which requires to be timely and properly addressed. Precision agriculture (PA), a concept that has been around for decades with the potential to address this challenge by maximizing agricultural efficiency and effectiveness, hasn't yet seen worldwide adoption due to missing enabling technologies. Soil sensing technologies able to monitor soil fertility/quality can close the loop in maintaining optimum soil conditions for maximizing crop yield and quality through the implementation of agricultural automated decision-making systems (ADMS). This chapter provides an overview of the existing soil sensing technologies towards the implementation of ADMS and highlights the major challenges in the development of such systems. The chapter continues to give an insight on how different technologies could be combined to form sophisticated systems for agricultural applications.
Precision Management Practices for Legal Cultivation of Cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.)
Authors: Farooque Aitazaz Ahsan , Abbas Farhat
Published: October 2020

Cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) growers worldwide lack reliable and research-based information about precision management practices (PMP) of cannabis. The history, legal framework, and PMP for cultivation of cannabis have been reviewed with special emphasis on water management, nutrient management, and disease control for optimum cannabis production. The aim is to provide guidelines for precision farming of cannabis to meet fibrous and medicinal needs of the humankind. Therefore, the scope of this chapter is for the potential of hemp cultivation to meet industry needs of fiber and medicine. Methods of irrigation scheduling, nutrient applications, and keeping greenhouse hygienically clean for disease-free (i.e., powdery mildew) hemp production are discussed. Reviewed and recommended application rates of irrigation and nutrients, and environment controls have been tabulated. Chemical, biological, and physical controls of PM control and crop input requirements for disease-free cultivation of hemp are presented.
Research on Text Classification Based on Automatically Extracted Keywords
Authors: Ni Pin , Li Yuming , Chang Victor
Published: October 2020

Automatic keywords extraction and classification tasks are important research directions in the domains of NLP (natural language processing), information retrieval, and text mining. As the fine granularity abstracted from text data, keywords are also the most important feature of text data, which has great practical and potential value in document classification, topic modeling, information retrieval, and other aspects. The compact representation of documents can be achieved through keywords, which contains massive significant information. Therefore, it may be quite advantageous to realize text classification with high-dimensional feature space. For this reason, this study designed a supervised keyword classification method based on TextRank keyword automatic extraction technology and optimize the model with the genetic algorithm to contribute to modeling the keywords of the topic for text classification.
Usage Behaviors on Snapchat, Instagram, and WhatsApp
Authors: Sultan Abdullah J.
Published: October 2020

The main objective of this research is to investigate usage behaviors of different age groups across popular social-media platforms and show what usage behavior is mostly utilized in each social media platform. A sample of 2,883 social media users was used to run a series of t-tests to support the research hypotheses. The findings show that young users (compared with old users) are more likely to use social media platforms for social and personal needs. In addition, across platform analyses indicate that users of WhatsApp (compared with Snapchat and Instagram) are more likely to use the platform for socially integrative needs (e.g., connecting with friends and family and talking), while Instagram and Snapchat users are more likely to use the platforms for affective needs (e.g., entertaining), personally integrative needs (e.g., enhancing self-expression and getting to know new people), tension release (e.g., escaping from boredom), and cognitive needs (e.g., seeking information). A more detailed analysis of age groups across the platforms are further discussed.
Two-Stage Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio Using Eigenvalues Detection
Authors: Mashta Faten , Altabban Wissam , Wainakh Mohieddin
Published: October 2020

Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio has difficult and complex requirements, requiring speed and good detection performance at low SNR ratios. As suggested in IEEE 802.22, the primary user signal needs to be detected at SNR = -21dB with a probability of detection exceeds 0.9. Conventional spectrum sensing methods such as the energy detector, which is characterized by simplicity with good detection performance at high SNR values, are ineffective at low SNR values, whereas eigenvalues detection methods have good detection performance at low SNR ratios, but they have high complexity. In this paper, the authors investigate the process of spectrum sensing in two stages: in the first stage (coarse sensing), the energy detector is adopted, while in the second stage (fine sensing), eigenvalues detection methods are used. This method improves performance in terms of probability of detection and computational complexity, as the authors compared the performance of two-stage sensing scheme with ones where only energy detection or eigenvalues detection is performed.
Performance and Security Tradeoffs in Cryptographic Hash Functions
Authors: Almuhammadi Sultan , Bawazeer Omar Mohammed
Published: October 2020

A cryptographic hash function is an important component used in many applications, such as blockchain, authentication, data integrity, and digital signature. With the rapid increase in usage of mobile devices, more attention goes towards the tradeoffs between performance and security of cryptographic hash functions on mobile devices due to their limited computational power. The researchers in this paper study the most common cryptographic hash functions and highlights the tradeoffs between their performance and security. The hash functions considered in this study are MD4, MD5, Whirlpool, and the hash functions in the SHA family. The security of these hash functions is compared based on recent attacks in terms of collision resistance, preimage attacks, and sensitivity analysis. While the performance is tested on different input block sizes, useful observations and recommendations are made based on the results of this study.
Exploring Non-Idealities in Real Device Implementations of Bluetooth Mesh
Authors: Gavrikov Paul , Lai Matthias , Wendt Thomas Michael
Published: October 2020

This work compares the performance of Bluetooth Mesh implementations on real chipsets against the ideal implementation of the specification. Measurements are taken in experimental settings and reveal non-idealities in the underlying Bluetooth Low Energy specification in real chipsets and in the implementation of Mesh, which introduces an unruly transmission as well as reception behavior. These effects lead to an impact on transmission rate, reception rate, latency, as well as a more significant impact on the average power consumption.
Simulated Performance of TFRC, DCCP, SCTP, and UDP Protocols Over Wired Networks
Authors: Kanellopoulos Dimitris N. , Wheeb Ali H.
Published: October 2020

Multimedia applications impose different QoS requirements (e.g., bounded end-to-end delay and jitter) and need an enhanced transport layer protocol that should handle packet loss, minimize errors, manage network congestion, and transmit efficiently. Across an IP network, the transport layer protocol provides data transmission and affects the QoS provided to the application on hand. The most common transport layer protocols used by Internet applications are TCP and UDP. There are also advanced transport layer protocols such as DCCP and TFRC. The authors evaluated the performance of UDP, DCCP, SCTP, and TFRC over wired networks for three traffic flows: data transmission, video streaming, and voice over IP. The evaluation criteria were throughput, end-to-end delay, and packet loss ratio. They compared their performance to learn in which traffic flow/service each of these protocols functions better than the others. The throughput of SCTP and TFRC is better than UDP. DCCP is superior to SCTP and TFRC in terms of end-to-end delay. SCTP is suitable for Internet applications that require high bandwidth.
A Multi-Layered Reliability Approach in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks
Authors: Kaja Hasita , Beard Cory
Published: October 2020

Vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) have been an important part of intelligent transport systems (ITS). Developing a reliable network for vehicle-to-vehicle communication is a crucial part of network deployment. In the present paper, the authors are discussing a layered approach towards reliability of VANETs. This paper will consider different layers of the dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) protocol stack and discuss key reliability indicators in each layer. This layered approach towards computing reliability results in more practical probability calculations and improves the minimum probability of reliability achievable by the VANETs. The authors discuss about different techniques to increase the reliability of VANETs. In the future works, the goal is to calculate probability density and distribution functions of reliability at each layer and derive combined reliability and availability of a given vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET).
Performance Analysis of DDoS Attack on SDN and Proposal of Cracking Agorithm
Authors: Dumka Ankur , Ashok Alaknanda , Verma Parag
Published: October 2020

The software-defined network (SDN) emerges as an updated technology that changes the scenario of networking where the network is managed by means of software. Any network is always not secure, and hence, the research in terms of securing this network is an area of research. DDoS is one of the attacks that makes a network insecure. This paper proposes the impact in terms of performance of SDN networks due to DDoS attack and proposes a new algorithm for increasing the performance of network. The proposed algorithm prevents the DDoS attack at the application level of flooding by keeping track of IP addresses and thus improves the performance of the network by preventing from DDoS attacks.
Direct-Indirect Link Matrix
Authors: Rawat Saurabh , Sah Anushree , Dumka Ankur
Published: October 2020

Testing of software remains a fundamentally significant way to check that software behaves as required. Component-based software testing (CBST) is a crucial activity of component-based software development (CBSD) and is based on two crucial proportions: components testing by developers with the source code (e.g., system testing, integration testing, unit testing, etc.) and components testing by end users without source code (black box testing). This work proposes a black box testing technique that calculates the total number of interactions made by component-based software. This technique is helpful to identify the number of test cases for those components where availability of source code is questionable. On the basis of interaction among components, the authors draw a component-link graph and a direct-indirect-link matrix, which helps to calculate the number of interactions in component-based software.
This Thing of Social Media!
Authors: Assensoh-Kodua Akwesi
Published: October 2020

Studies on online purchases abound, but are rarely on social media or social networking service (SNS) to highlight its influence on participants with regards to online purchases. This paper dares to do this. The SNS, although it was envisaged to be a platform for socialisation, has transmuted into a business model that is actually impacting on sales volume of organisations. Predictably, it could be said that the sustainability of this new business phenomenon depends on the continuance patronage of the SNS participants. This study investigated the dynamics impacting on SNS participant to find out whether what makes them purchase through it depends on habit or sheer influence. The study embarked on an online data collection process and performed a structural equation modelling (SEM) with the aid of a partial least square (PLS) program known as PLS-SEM.
Biological Investigations of Hydrogel Formulations Based Bioactive Natural Agents Against Some Common Phytopathogens of Phaseolus vulgaris L. and Seed Germination
Authors: Camele Ippolito , Elshafie Hazem Salaheldin , Nuzzaci Maria , Logozzo Giuseppina , Gioia Tania
Published: October 2020

Recent scientific research has manipulated the use of hydrogel in seed coating technology based on synthetic and chemical additives. The current study has been carried out to evaluate the performance of new seed coating formulations containing hydrogel based on natural substances or microorganisms on seed germination and controlling some common diseases of Phaseolus vulgaris L. New formulations have been prepared as single mixtures of hydrogel with the following bioactive substances i) oregano essential oil (org EO), ii) ornithine lipid (OL) and two microorganisms i) Burkholderia gladioli and ii) Trichoderma harzianum (T22). Results revealed that, the hydrogel formulation based org EO showed the highest significant activity against the majority of the tested phytopathogens in a dose dependent manner. Regarding the antagonistic microbial activity, results showed that hydrogel formulations based T. harzianum T22 and B. gladioli were able to significantly reduce the growth of the majority of tested phytopathogens. In addition, the highest significant percentage of seed germination has been achieved using the formulations of B. gladioli and org EO. Regarding the disease incidence suppression assay, results explicated that org EO and OL were able to significantly inhibit the fungal disease incidence on P. vulgaris seeds steadily depending on tested concentrations. In conclusion, the use of natural bioactive substances in hydrogel formulation would greatly reduce dependence on chemical pesticides and hence decreasing the environmental pollution and the eventual harmful effects on plant, animal and human health.
Pattern and correlates of obesity among public service workers in Ondo State, Nigeria: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Aladeniyi Isaac , Adeniyi Oladele Vincent , Fawole Olufunmilayo , Adeolu Mary , Goon Daniel Ter , Ajayi Anthony Idowu , Owolabi Eyitayo O
Published: October 2020

Background: Obesity is the third leading cause of mortality and has become a global epidemic. There is a continuous increase in its prevalence both in the developed and in developing countries. Obesity is closely associated with chronic health conditions, thus increasing the overall burden of disease and disability at the population level. Several factors have been identified as contributors to the obesity epidemic, and may include the work environment and lifestyle behaviours. This study sought to determine the correlates of obesity among public service workers in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study involving 4 828 public civil service workers across 47 ministries, departments and agencies in Ondo State, Nigeria. Relevant demographic and lifestyle measures were obtained using the World Health Organization (WHO) STEPwise Questionnaire. Height and weight were measured using standardised procedures. Obesity and overweight were defined according to the WHO Criteria as a body mass index (BMI) of ≥ 30 kg/m2 and 25–29.9 kg/m2, respectively. Bivariate and multivariate (logistic regression models) analyses were used to determine the significant predictors of obesity.

Results: Of the total participants (n = 4828), there was a male to female ratio of 1:1 (male = 2 299 and female = 2 529). One in every five participants was found to be obese with 55% of the participants having a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2. In the bivariate analysis, female sex (p < 0.000), age above 41 years (p < 0.000), post-primary education level (p < 0.001), marriage (p < 0.000), no alcohol consumption (p < 0.001), diabetes (p < 0.000) as well as hypertension (p < 0.000) were significantly associated with obesity. In the multivariate analysis, after adjusting for confounders, only female sex (AOR = 5.7, CI = 4.7–6.9), age (AOR = 1.4, CI = 1.1–1.8), level of education (AOR = 0.8, CI = 0.7–0.9), marital status (AOR = 2.1, CI = 1.7–2.), alcohol consumption (AOR = 0.7, CI = 0.5–0.9), diabetes mellitus (AOR = 0.7, CI = 0.5–0.9) and hypertension (AOR = 0.5, CI = 0.4–0.6) were the significant and independent predictors of obesity.

Conclusion: This study found a high prevalence of obesity among public service workers in Akure, Nigeria, possibly attributed to ageing, being of female gender, being married, and having other non-communicable diseases. A well-implemented workplace policy focusing on integrated screening for obesity and non-communicable diseases should be prioritised in Nigeria.

(Full text of the research articles are available online at www.medpharm.tandfonline.com/ojfp)

S Afr Fam Pract 2017; DOI: 10.1080/20786190.2017.1333784
Effect of self-monitoring of blood glucose on glycaemic outcome among type 2 diabetic patients
Authors: Sodipo Oluwajimi Olanrewaju , Adedokun Ayoade , Olusola Adedeji Adejumo
Published: October 2020

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder which leads to complications especially when not properly managed. The role of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) in type 2 diabetic patients using oral hypoglycaemic agents has been a source of controversy.

Objective: The objective was to study the effect of SMBG on glycaemic outcome among type 2 diabetics in a primary care setting.

Methodology: A randomised control study was conducted between March 2013 and November 2013 at the General Outpatient Clinic of the Family Medicine Department (FMD) in Lagos State University Teaching hospital. A total of 120 diabetic patients were randomised into intervention and control groups; 107 patients (55 in the intervention and 52 in the control group) completed the study. Intention-to-treat analysis was done. Chi-square, Students t- and paired t-test were used to determine variables significantly associated with SMBG.

Results: More than three-quarters (77.5%) of the participants were aware of SMBG prior to commencement of the study. Both the SMBG (8.7% vs. 7.2%; p-value < 0.001) and non-SMBG (8.7% vs 7.7%; p-value < 0.001) groups had a significant improvement in HbA1c at the end of the study. Similarly there was a significant improvement in FBG among both groups (SMBG 153 mg/dl vs. 123 mg/dl; p-value < 0.001 and non-SMBG (158 mg/dl vs. 137 mg/dl; p-value 0.022). The HbA1c at the end of the study was 7.2% for the SMBG vs 7.7% for the non-SMBG group with no statistical difference (p-value 0.174).

Conclusion: The use of SMBG among type 2 DM patients did not result in better glycaemic control compared with patients who did not practise SMBG. It could be due to close follow-up and education of both groups.

(Full text of the research articles are available online at www.medpharm.tandfonline.com/ojfp)

S Afr Fam Pract 2017; DOI: 10.1080/20786190.2017.1340250
South Africa and national TB control: Are we making progress?
Authors: Ogunbanjo Gboyega A
Published: October 2020

South Africa accounts for the worst global tuberculosis epidemics fuelled by the spread of HIV infection. The tuberculosis (TB) incidence increased from 300 per 100,000 people in the early 1990s to more than 950 per 100,000 in 2012.1 In addition, the country remains one of the countries with the highest TB burden globally, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics giving an estimated incidence of 454,000 cases of active TB in 2015.2 This means that about 0.8% of South Africa’s population of 54 million develop active TB disease annually. Of the 454 000 TB cases in South Africa in 2015, WHO estimated that about 57% (258,000) were HIV positive. It also estimated that of 157,505 whose status was known, and who were known to be HIV positive, some 85% (133,116) were on antiretroviral therapy.3 From the same 2015 report, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces had the highest incidence rates of 692, 685 and 681 per 100,000 respectively. The most notable decline was in KwaZulu-Natal where the incidence decreased from 1,185 to 685 per 100,000 over the last five years.1
Mastering your fellowship
Authors: Von Pressentin Klaus B. , Naidoo Mergan , Ross Andrew , Ras Tasleem
Published: October 2020

The series, “Mastering your Fellowship”, provides examples of the question format encountered in the written and clinical examinations, Part A of the FCFP (SA) examination. The series is aimed at helping family medicine registrars prepare for this examination. Model answers are available online.
SAAFP moving forward
Authors: Mash Bob
Published: October 2020

No abstract available.
Optimum INR intensity and therapeutic INR control in patients with mechanical heart valve prosthesis on warfarin oral anticoagulation at Dr George Mukhari academic hospital: a three-year retrospective study
Authors: Ntlokotsi S. , Moshesh M. F. , Mntla P. , Towobola O. A. , Mogale M. A.
Published: October 2020

Background: Available evidence suggest that the optimum prothrombin time-international normalised ratio (PT-INR) intensities recommended for anticoagulation of patients with mechanical heart valve prosthesis may not apply to all race groups. Optimal PT-INR target ranges and effectiveness of warfarin oral anticoagulation were determined among black South African patients fitted with St Jude bileaflet mechanical heart valve prosthesis (SJBMHVP) at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital (DGMAH). Methods: A convenience sample of 95 medical records of patients fitted with SJBMHVP from 1994 until 2013 was reviewed. Optimum PT-INR target ranges were estimated using two different methods: the classical two PT-INR target level method and the alternative, PT-INR specific incident rate method. The quality of warfarin anticoagulation was assessed using the fraction in therapeutic range method.Results: Optimum PT-INR target ranges for all participants fitted with SJBMHVP in the aortic position was estimated to be 2.0–3.5 and 2.6–3.5, respectively, by the classical and alternative methods. That of the patients with mitral valve replacement was estimated to be in the range 2.6–3.5 by the classical method and that of patients with double heart valve replacement was estimated to be 3.5 by both methods. The quality of warfarin anticoagulation of participants with SJBMHVP replacement was found to be inadequate as indicated by percentage time in treatment range (TTR) of 49.7% for all study participants compared with the ideal TTR of 70% and above.Conclusion: Optimum Caucasian-based PT-INR intensities recommended for oral anticoagulation of patients fitted with mechanical heart valve prosthesis are applicable to black patients fitted with SJBMHVP at DGMAH.
Mastering your Fellowship
Authors: Von Pressentin Klaus B. , Naidoo Margan , Mayanja Frederick , Ras Tasleem
Published: October 2020

The series, “Mastering your Fellowship”, provides examples of the question format encountered in the FCFP(SA) examination. The series aims to help family medicine registrars and their supervisors prepare for this examination. Model answers are available online.
All headaches are not equal: A review of migraine as a state of brain dysfunction
Authors: Wolmarans De Wet , Brand Sarel J. , Brand Linda
Published: October 2020

No abstract available.
Mastering your Fellowship
Authors: Naidoo M. , Von Pressentin K. B. , Ras T. , Steinberg H.
Published: October 2020

The series, “Mastering your Fellowship”, provides examples of the question format encountered in the FCFP(SA) examination. The series aims to help family medicine registrars and their supervisors prepare for this examination. Model answers are available online.
An overview of analgesics - anticonvulsants, antidepressants, and other medications (Part 3)
Authors: Van Rensburg R. , Reuter H.
Published: October 2020

Pain is classified by various descriptions. Chronic pain has been described as being neuropathic (due to nervous system lesions), nociceptive (due to tissue damage), or mixed (a combination of neuropathic and nociceptive). The addition of the term nociplastic pain is used to describe patients who experience chronic pain without tissue damage or nervous system lesions. Chronic pain is often difficult to manage, particularly neuropathic pain. Evidence-based pharmacological treatment options include anticonvulsants and antidepressants. The choice of medication will depend on various factors, including patient profile, type of pain, and associated conditions. Medications with the best evidence of efficacy for first-line use in neuropathic pain are the gabapentinoids, carbamazepine, the tricyclic antidepressants, and the serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors duloxetine and venlafaxine. The cannabinoids and ketamine are being actively investigated for use in chronic pain. Currently the cannabinoids’ potential benefit is outweighed by the adverse effects, and recommendations for the use of ketamine is limited by its parenteral route of administration and low evidence of efficacy in chronic pain.
Households’ satisfaction with the healthcare services rendered by a ward-based outreach team in Tshwane district, Pretoria, South Africa
Authors: Masango Makgobela A. T. , Ndimande J. V. , Ogunbanjo G. , Bongongo T. , Nyalunga S. N.
Published: October 2020

Introduction: Households’ satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring quality in health care. An amelioration of primary health care services at the level of households, by utilising community health workers, has led to a good healthcare system in many countries, such as Brazil. In South Africa, little is known about the satisfaction of households (HH) regarding the healthcare services they receive from ward-based outreach teams (WBOTs). A study was undertaken to determine this phenomenon.Methods: The study used a cross-sectional study design. Tshwane district had established 39 ward-based outreach teams at the time of the study and households were conveniently selected. Hence the study population was estimated to be 3 600. Using 99% confidence level and 5% confidence interval, the sample size was 660, and oversampled to 765 since all households present during the data collection were willing to be included in the survey. Data collected was captured on Microsoft Excel and analysed using SAS, version 9.2.Results: Interviews were held with members of the families, who were willing to participate. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 110, mean age 53.1years (SD = 19.7). The study participants included more females (74.0%), and 45.2% were single. The majority (89.8%) were unemployed. Overall satisfaction was seen in 692 participants (90.7%). Outcome of satisfaction according to sex (91.9%), age (90.7%) and employment (90.8%) was not statistically significant with p-value 0.05.Conclusions: The findings of households’ satisfaction regarding the healthcare services rendered by the ward-based outreach team in Tshwane district, Pretoria, South Africa showed a high level of satisfaction from the households. This high level of satisfaction was referred to as excellent and was not associated with sex, age or employment status. A recommendation is made to all stakeholders that the ward-based outreach team programme cover all municipal wards in the country in order to raise the level of households’ satisfaction with the healthcare system.
Prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in a multiracial female population in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa
Authors: Naidoo Yeshnee , Moodley Jagidesa , Madurai Lorna , Naicker Thajasvarie
Published: October 2020

Objective: Vitamin D deficiency is a global health issue affecting many countries, especially those in temperate climates. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency and level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in females categorised by age and race.Methods: The study was performed between January 2015 and January 2016. This study consisted of 1 976 females stratified by age into 18, reproductive age (18–45) and 45 years. Demographic variables were recorded and serum 25(OH)D levels measured by chemiluminescent emission.Results: The predictors of lower 25(OH)D levels included age and race, (p 0.0001 for each predictor). Approximately 46% of females had 20 ng/ml 25(OH)D level, the majority of whom were Indian (35%). The 25(OH)D level varied by race (White 27.33 ng/ml; Black 23.43 ng/ml and Indian 15.05 ng/ml; p 0.0001). In the 18-year age category, White and Black women had significantly higher 25(OH)D levels when compared with Indian women (38.25 ng/ml vs. 37.51 ng/ml vs. 13.68 ng/ml respectively; p 0.0001). Similarly, in the reproductive age category (18–45 years); White (27.63 ng/ml) and Black (20.93 ng/ml) women had a significantly higher 25(OH)D level compared with Indian (13.15 ng/ml) women (p 0.0001). Moreover, similar data were observed within the 45-year age category, where the White and Black women had higher 25(OH)D levels compared with Indian women (25.46 ng/ml vs. 22.73 ng/ml vs. 17.04 ng/ml; p 0.0001) respectively. Irrespective of age category, severe vitamin D deficiency was highest amongst Indian females.Conclusion: This study demonstrates a significant difference in 25(OH)D concentration in healthy females living in Durban, with Indians presenting with the highest vitamin D deficiency. These findings clearly highlight the need for a policy on vitamin D supplementation and/or fortification of food. Further studies are under way to assess the genetic predisposition of women to vitamin D deficiency.
Adherence to iron prophylactic therapy during pregnancy in an urban regional hospital in South Africa
Authors: Mkhize Princess Z. , Naicker T. , Onyangunga O. A. , Moodley J.
Published: October 2020

Background: Iron and folic acid supplementation plays a major role in the prevention and control of iron-deficiency anaemia in pregnancy. Therefore, this study assesses adherence to prophylactic iron supplementation during the antenatal period in South Africa.Methods: An observational study was conducted in a regional hospital from January to December 2016. HIV-uninfected (n = 100) and HIV-infected (n = 100)] women were enrolled and subdivided into three groups: (a) ≤ 34 weeks (n = 33), (b) 34–36 weeks (n = 34) and (c) ≥ 37 weeks (n = 33) gestational age respectively. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were coded and statistically analysed using SPSS software. Pill count and self-reported data from women (n = 24) at ≤ 34 weeks and 34–36 weeks reflected 50% adherence and 46% non-adherence, being higher in the HIV-infected women (75%). Nausea was the commonest side effect across all trimesters (79. 2%). Adherence (27.8%) and non-adherence (72.1%) to iron, folic acid and calcium supplementation were found in 88% of women.Conclusion: This study found that adherence to micronutrient supplementation is low in pregnancy, albeit higher in HIV-infected women receiving antenatal care at a regional hospital in Durban, South Africa.Abbreviations: Haemoglobin (Hb), Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV), antiretroviral therapy (ARV), zidovudine (ZDV), tuberculosis (TB), low to middle- income countries (LMICs), World Health Organization (WHO), antenatal clinic (ANC).
A preliminary study of sperm identification in microdissection testicular sperm extraction samples with deep convolutional neural networks
Authors: Wu Daniel J , Badamjav Odgerel , Reddy Vikrant V , Eisenberg Michael , Behr Barry
Published: October 2020

Sperm identification and selection is an essential task when processing human testicular samples for in vitro fertilization. Locating and identifying sperm cell(s) in human testicular biopsy samples is labor intensive and time consuming. We developed a new computer-aided sperm analysis (CASA) system, which utilizes deep learning for near human-level performance on testicular sperm extraction (TESE), trained on a custom dataset. The system automates the identification of sperm in testicular biopsy samples. A dataset of 702 de-identified images from testicular biopsy samples of 30 patients was collected. Each image was normalized and passed through glare filters and diffraction correction. The data were split 80%, 10%, and 10% into training, validation, and test sets, respectively. Then, a deep object detection network, composed of a feature extraction network and object detection network, was trained on this dataset. The model was benchmarked against embryologists' performance on the detection task. Our deep learning CASA system achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 0.741, with an average recall (AR) of 0.376 on our dataset. Our proposed method can work in real time; its speed is effectively limited only by the imaging speed of the microscope. Our results indicate that deep learning-based technologies can improve the efficiency of finding sperm in testicular biopsy samples.
Category Theorems for Schrödinger Semigroups
Authors: Aloisio Moacir , Carvalho Silas L. , de Oliveira César R.
Published: October 2020

Stimulated by the category theorems of Eisner and Serény in the setting of unitary and isometric

C_0

-semigroups on separable Hilbert spaces, we prove category theorems for Schrödinger semigroups. Specifically, we show that, to a given class of Schrödinger semigroups, Baire generically the semigroups are strongly stable but not exponentially stable. We also present a typical spectral property of the corresponding Schrödinger operators.
Differentiating Orlicz Spaces with Rectangles Having Fixed Shapes in a Set of Directions
Authors: D'Aniello Emma , Moonens Laurent
Published: October 2020

In the present note, we examine the behavior of some homothecy-invariant differentiation basis of rectangles in the plane satisfying the following requirement: for a given rectangle to belong to the basis, the ratio of the largest of its side-lengths by the smallest one (which one calls its shape) has to be a fixed real number depending on the angle between its longest side and the horizontal line (yielding a shape-function). Depending on the allowed angles and the corresponding shape-function, a basis may differentiate various Orlicz spaces. We here give some examples of shape-functions so that the corresponding basis differentiates

L

log

L(\mathbb R^2)

, and show that in some “model” situations, a fast-growing shape function (whose speed of growth depends on

\alpha > 0

) does not allow the differentiation of

L

log

^{\alpha}L(\mathbb R^2)

.