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Network function (NF) developers have traditionally prioritized performance when creating new packet processing capabilities. This was usually driven by a market demand for highly available solutions with differentiating features running at line rate, even at the expense of flexibility and tightly-coupled monolithic designs. Today, however, the market advantage is achieved by providing more features in shorter development cycles and quickly deploying them in different operating environments. In fact, network operators are increasingly adopting continuous software delivery practices as well as new architectural styles (e.g., microservices) to decouple functionality and accelerate development. A key challenge in revisiting NF design is state management, which is usually highly optimized for a deployment by carefully selecting the underlying data store. Therefore, migrating to a data store that suits a different use case is time-consuming as it requires code refactoring and adaptation to new application programming interfaces, APIs. As a result, refactoring NF software for different environments can take up to months, reducing the pace at which new features and upgrades can be deployed in production networks. In this paper, we demonstrate experimentally that it is feasible to introduce an abstraction layer to decouple NF state management from the data store adopted while still approaching line-rate performance. We present FlexState, a state management system that exposes data store functionality as configuration options, which reduces code refactoring efforts. Experiments show that FlexState achieves significant flexibility in optimizing the state management, and accelerates deployment on new scenarios while preserving performance and scalability.

Many next-generation antibody therapeutics have enhanced potency but the risk of adverse events. Here the authors develop a conditionally activated, single-module CAR.

The proliferation of smartphones and mobile communication has enabled users to capture images or videos and share them immediately on social networking and messaging platforms. Unfortunately, these platforms are also used to manipulate the masses by performing social engineering attacks by sharing fabricated images (or videos). These attacks cause public shame, ethnic violence and claim lives. With the rise of advanced image processing tools, the deep fakes are automated, and their implications are boundless. In this article, we discuss different types of modification of images/videos and survey the corresponding methods and tools. We also highlight the ongoing efforts to detect fake images and videos using advanced machine learning tools and fact-checking. Along with these tools, we also need different complementary approaches discouraging the production and propagation of manipulative forged images and videos on the Internet. This paper further emphasizes that we desperately need socio-technological solutions that empower end-users with the right tools to make an informed moral decision while producing, uploading, and sharing media. Finally, supporting this, we discuss a holistic blockchain-based solution.

Glomerulonefrita cronică se dezvoltă treptat, poate fi depistată ocazional în absența simptoamelor [19]. Varianta cronică a bolii nu are o cauză certă. Glomerulonefritele cronice sunt cauza de la 35% până la 55% din insuficiență renală în stadiu terminal, în funcție de țări sau regiuni [20, 22]. Scopul acestei lucrări - stabilirea și evaluarea prognosticului glomerulonefritelor cronice în dependență de tratamentul aplicat la pacienții cu glomerulonefrită cronică. A fost stabilit - în dependență de sindromul clinic principal prezent: 29 (48,3%) pacienți – au fost cu forma mixta, 16 (26,6%) pacienți – cu sindromul nefritic, 11 (18,3%) pacienți – cu sindromul nefrotic, 3 (5%) pacient – cu forma hematurica și 1 (1,6%) pacient – cu sindromul hipertensiv. După tratamentul aplicat: 57 (95%) din toți pacienți primesc terapie antihipertensivă; 52 (86,6%) pacienți primesc diuretice; 49 (81,6%) pacienți primesc statine; 31 (51,6%) pacienți administrează glucocorticosteroizi; 29 (48,3%) pacienți primesc citostatice; 20 (33,3%) sunt cu terapie antianemica.

In the modern era of the mobile apps (the era of surveillance capitalism - as termed by Shoshana Zuboff) huge quantities of surveillance data about consumers and their activities offer a wave of opportunities for economic and societal value creation. ln-app advertising - a multi-billion dollar industry, is an essential part of the current digital ecosystem driven by free mobile applications, where the ecosystem entities usually comprise consumer apps, their clients (consumers), ad-networks, and advertisers. Sensitive consumer information is often being sold downstream in this ecosystem without the knowledge of consumers, and in many cases to their annoyance. While this practice, in cases, may result in long-term benefits for the consumers, it can result in serious information privacy breaches of very significant impact (e.g., breach of genetic data) in the short term. The question we raise through this paper is: Is it economically feasible to trade consumer personal information with their formal consent (permission) and in return provide them incentives (monetary or otherwise)?. In view of (a) the behavioral assumption that humans are `compromising' beings and have privacy preferences, (b) privacy as a good not having strict boundaries, and (c) the practical inevitability of inappropriate data leakage by data holders downstream in the data-release supply-chain, we propose a design of regulated efficient/bounded inefficient economic mechanisms for oligopoly data trading markets using a novel preference function bidding approach on a simplified sellers-broker market. Our methodology preserves the heterogeneous privacy preservation constraints (at a grouped consumer, i.e., app, level) upto certain compromise levels, and at the same time satisfies information demand (via the broker) of agencies (e.g., advertising organizations) that collect client data for the purpose of targeted behavioral advertising.

BackgroundTracheal intubation is commonly performed after direct laryngoscopy using Macintosh laryngoscopes (MacL), but visualization of the larynx may be inadequate. The VieScope (VSC) as a new type of laryngoscope consisting of a straight, shielded, illuminated tube used to perform intubation via a bougie was investigated in this prospective randomized trial in patients without expected difficult airways.MethodsWith ethics approval, 2 × 29 patients for elective surgery were randomized 1:1 to intubation with VSC or MacL. Endpoints were first attempt success rates (FAS), Percentage of Glottis Opening Scale (POGO), time to intubation (TTI), and difficulty ratings on visual analog scales (0–100, lower values better). Data are given as mean ± standard deviation.ResultsThe FAS was 83 ± 38% for VSC and 86 ± 34% for MacL (P = 0.723). For VSC, POGO was 86 ± 17% and for MacL 68 ± 30% (P = 0.007). TTI for VSC was 93 ± 67s vs. 38 ± 17 for MacL (P < 0.001). Difficulty of intubation was rated 23 ± 22 for VSC vs. 18 ± 22 for MacL (P = 0.422), viewing conditions 12 ± 15 vs. 24 ± 25 (P = 0.031), and difficulty of tube placement was rated 27 ± 30 vs. 7 ± 8 (P = 0.001).ConclusionNo difference in FAS was detected between VSC and MacL. Visualization of the larynx was superior using the VSC, while TTI was prolonged and tube placement via bougie was more challenging. The VSC could be an alternative to MacL in patients with difficult laryngoscopy, but this should be investigated further in patients with expected difficult airways.

Knowledge of the dependence between random variables is necessary in the area of risk assessment and evaluation. Some of the existing Archimedean copulas, namely the Clayton and the Gumbel copulas, allow for higher correlations on the extreme left and right, respectively. In this study, we use the idea of convex combinations to build a hybrid Clayton–Gumbel–Frank copula that provides all dependence scenarios from existing Archimedean copulas. The corresponding density and conditional distribution functions of the derived models for two random variables, as well as an estimator for the proportion parameter associated with the proposed model, are also derived. The results show that the proposed model is able to show any case of dependence by providing coefficients for the upper tail and lower tail dependence.

The composites of properties of ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer (E) and acrylonitrile butadiene-rubber (N) composites of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (G) were prepared by a combination of solution and open-roll method. They include single matrices (EGO and EG) and blends N/E, 20 part of hundreds of rubber (phr)/80 phr (A), 80 phr/20 phr (B), and 50 phr/50 phr(C) blend containing GO and G. The physico-mechanical properties including vulcanization, tensile, glass transition temperature (Tg), and dielectric spectroscopic properties were evaluated. The N-rich systems reinforced with GO, cured faster than the E-rich systems. Also, N-rich systems obtained the highest dielectric constant ɛ′, especially when GO and G were incorporated, for example, NG and N-GO obtained 317 and 283% increment in ɛ′ than EG and EGO, respectively. In terms of tensile properties, AGO exhibited the highest strength and elongation at break properties (%). Therefore, solution mixing technique of rubber blends filled with nanoinclusion can be achieved with the tendency of reducing cost without the use of compatibilizer and still maintain the integrity of the physical properties of the final product. The result obtained therefore shows that the current compositions can find various applications in oil/gas sealants, heat-resistant applications, and energy storage materials with minimal losses.

Air pollution is a contributor to approximately one in every nine deaths annually. Air quality monitoring is being carried out extensively in urban environments. Currently, however, city air quality stations are expensive to maintain resulting in sparse coverage and data is not readily available to citizens. This can be resolved by city-wide participatory sensing of air quality fluctuations using low-cost sensors. We introduce new concepts for participatory sensing: a voluntary community-based monitoring data forum for stakeholders to manage air pollution interventions; an automated system (cyber-physical system) for monitoring outdoor air quality and indoor air quality; programmable platform for calibration and generating virtual sensors using data from low-cost sensors and city monitoring stations. To test our concepts, we developed a low-cost sensor to measure particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) with GPS. We validated our approach in Helsinki, Finland, with participants carrying the sensor for 3 months during six data campaigns between 2019 and 2021. We demonstrate good correspondence between the calibrated low-cost sensor data and city’s monitoring station measurements. Data analysis of their personal exposure was made available to the participants and stored as historical data for later use. Combining the location of low cost sensor data with participants public profile, we generate proxy concentrations for black carbon and lung deposition of particles between districts, by age groups and by the weekday.

Obiective. Studierea modificărilor renale la pacienții cu spondiloartite seronegative (spondilita anchilozantă, artrita reactivă și artrita psoriazică), pentru a evidenția principalele mecanisme etiopatogenetice de injurie renală și principalele forme de manifestare clinică a acestora, ce ar permite stabilirea unui diagnostic clinic complet precoce, tratament ajustat și elaborarea unor măsuri de prevenire a complicațiilor. Material și metode. În studiu au fost incluși 105 de pacienți (câte 35 de pacienți cu spondilita anchilozantă, artrita reactivă și artrita psoriazică). Lotul de bolnavi a fost analizat multilateral, conform diferitor grupe de distribuție ce respectă următoarele criterii: sexul, vârsta, mediul de reședință, prezența fumatului, consumul de alcool. Pentru toți pacienții a fost analizat examenul obiectiv general și sistemic, precum și rezultatele investigațiilor de laborator și instrumentale. Rezultate. Conform manifestărilor clinice prezente la pacienți, sistemul renal s-a dovedit a fi cel mai puternic afectat în rândul pacienților cu spondilită anchilozantă, o afectare mai ușoară la bolnavii cu artrită psoriazică, și cu cele mai puține afectări printre bolnavii cu artrită reactivă. Gradul de afectare renală este direct proporțional cu vechimea afecțiunii de bază: cu cât vechimea bolii este mai mare, cu atât este mai gravă afecțiunea renală. Din comorbidități, ca factori de risc în agravarea funcției renale, este Hipertensiunea arterială (80%), Diabetul zaharat tip 2 (60%), Dislipidemia (50%) și Hiperuricemia (20%). Concluzii. Un diagnostic timpuriu ne poate permite un management precoce, ceea ce, la rândul său, va putea permite să păstrăm funcția renală a pacientului.

Aims: To explore the impact of diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMT2) on the vestibular system by differing in vestibular function (VF) results between people with and without DMT2. Methods: Relevant studies were identified through databases, including adults with DMT2 and controls. Only studies using objective VF tests were selected. For cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMP), ocular VEMP (oVEMP) and video Head Impulse Test (vHIT), results of both populations were compared using the random effects model. The prevalence of vestibular dysfunction (VD) was also considered. Results: 13 and 8 studies for qualitative and quantitative analysis were included. Prevalence of VD ranged from 7.7% to 84% in DMT2 individuals and 0%–15% in controls. VHIT and most VEMP-parameters yielded non-significant differences, except for n-amplitudes during oVEMP testing (-2.44 µV; 95%CI:-4.15 to -0.74; p = 0.005), interamplitude values in both cVEMP (-1.18; 95%CI:-2.28 to -0.09; p = 0.034) and oVEMP tests (-0.74; 95%CI:-1.24 to -0.23; p = 0.004; (subgroup-analysis)), although high heterogeneity was present (I² > 75%). Conclusion: There is evidence of higher VD prevalence in people with DMT2 compared to controls, independently of the presence of symptoms. More standardized measuring methods is needed to draw firmer conclusions regarding detection of subclinical VD.

Background and Objectives: Stigma and lack of acceptance in society might have detrimental effects on the quality of life of patients with psoriasis, sometimes being comparable with other chronic diseases and conditions that affect the appearance of a patient, such as burns. Therefore, we surveyed our patients diagnosed with psoriasis to determine the implications of misinformation and stigma for their quality of life, depression, and coping strategies stratified by different age categories. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was designed for a sample size of a minimum of 45 patients considering a prevalence of psoriasis of 2–3% in the general population. The study participants (patients and controls) were given both a paper-based unstandardized questionnaire and an online version of three standardized surveys. The cohort of patients was further split into three age groups to determine their age-related quality of life and coping mechanisms. Results: The proportion of patients with a history of depression and depressive symptoms among patients with psoriasis was significantly higher. Multiple discrepancies were observed between patients and controls regarding questions that targeted stigma and misinformation. On the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (COPE-60) questionnaire, older patients were more likely to use positive coping mechanisms such as engagement and problem-focused coping, while the young patients were using more emotion-focused coping mechanisms. However, patients in the 30–50 age range group scored the highest on physical and mental health among all participants who filled the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12) survey. The Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) results showed significantly more patients answering “a lot and very much” concerning embarrassment and social activities, while sexual difficulties affected the older patients. The strongest correlations with depression were observed in the young patient group, who believed that psoriasis can cause skin cancer (rho = 0.418) and who had sexual difficulties (rho = 0.414) and embarrassment (rho = 0.359) as evaluated by the DLQI survey. In the 30- to 50-year-old group, the strongest correlations were with the feeling of being stigmatized (rho = 0.376), having sexual difficulties (rho = 0.367) and disengagement coping style (rho = 273). Conclusions: While the respondents are reasonably well-informed regarding psoriasis, a degree of stigma remains, likely due to involuntary emotional responses such as repulsion and embarrassment. It is essential to establish initiatives aimed at educating the general public, raising awareness, and establishing a more tolerant social environment for psoriasis patients.

Background: Video-based interventions have the potential to contribute to long-lasting improvements in health-seeking behaviours. Ghana's upsurge rate of information and communication technology usage presents an opportunity to improve the awareness of HPV vaccination and screening rates of cervical cancer among women in Ghana. This research aimed to assess the impact of video-based educational intervention centred on the Health Belief and Transtheoretical Models of behavioural changes in promoting HPV vaccination, cervical carcinoma awareness and willingness to have Pap smear test (PST) among women in Ghana.Methods: To achieve the intended sample size, convenient, purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were used. SPSS v. 23.0 was used in the data analysis. Percentages and frequencies were used to represent participants' demographic characteristics, knowledge of (1) cervical carcinoma, (2) human papillomavirus vaccine, and (3) Pap smear test. The chi-square test by McNemar was employed to evaluate variations in the post- and pre-intervention responses. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The level of significance was adjusted owing to multiple comparisons by using the Bonferroni's correction.Results: Before the intervention, 84.2% of the participant had some knowledge or information about cervical cancer, but after the intervention, 100% of the participant became aware of cervical cancer which represents 15.8% increment at a P < .001. The willingness to have a pap smear test increased from 35.8% to 94.2% (df = 58.4%, P < .001) after the educational intervention. The willingness to be vaccinated increased from 47.5% to 81.7% (df = 34.2%, P < .001) after the educational intervention. Six months after the intervention, participants were followed-up. 253 (42.2%) participants had gone for cervical cancer screening (Pap smear test) while 347 (57.8%) participants had not been screened. In terms of HPV vaccination, 192 participants (32.0%) had begun their HPV vaccination cycle.Conclusion: The study results show that health education, using videos, may be influential in perception changing, self-efficacy improvement and the understanding of cervical carcinoma screening and HPV vaccination.

Summary: Differential privacy allows quantifying privacy loss resulting from accession of sensitive personal data. Repeated accesses to underlying data incur increasing loss. Releasing data as privacy-preserving synthetic data would avoid this limitation but would leave open the problem of designing what kind of synthetic data. We propose formulating the problem of private data release through probabilistic modeling. This approach transforms the problem of designing the synthetic data into choosing a model for the data, allowing also the inclusion of prior knowledge, which improves the quality of the synthetic data. We demonstrate empirically, in an epidemiological study, that statistical discoveries can be reliably reproduced from the synthetic data. We expect the method to have broad use in creating high-quality anonymized data twins of key datasets for research. The bigger picture: Open data are a key component of open science. Unrestricted access to datasets would be necessary for the transparency and reproducibility that the scientific method requires. So far, openness has been at odds with privacy requirements, which has prohibited the opening up of sensitive data even after pseudonymization, which does not protect against privacy breaches using side information. A recent solution for the data-sharing problem is to release synthetic data drawn from privacy-preserving generative models. We propose to interpret privacy-preserving data sharing as a modeling task, allowing us to incorporate prior knowledge of the data-generation process into the generator model using modern probabilistic modeling methods. We demonstrate that this can significantly increase the utility of the generated data.

Poor air quality influences the quality of life in the urban environment. The regulatory observation stations provide the backbone for the city administration to monitor urban air quality. Recently a suite of cost-effective air quality sensors has emerged to provide novel insights into the spatio-temporal variability of aerosol particles and trace gases. Particularly in low concentrations these sensors might suffer from issues related e.g., to high detection limits, concentration drifts and interdependency between the observed trace gases and environmental parameters. In this study we characterize the optical particle detector used in AQT530 (Vaisala Ltd.) air quality sensor in the laboratory. We perform a measurement campaign with a network of AQT530 sensors in Helsinki, Finland in 2020–2021 and present a long-term performance evaluation of five sensors for particulate (PM10, PM2.5) and gaseous (NO2, NO, CO, O3) components during a half-year co-location study with reference instruments at an urban traffic site. Furthermore, short-term (3–5 weeks) co-location tests were performed for 25 sensors to provide sensor-specific correction equations for the fine-tuning of selected pollutants in the sensor network. We showcase the added value of the verified network of 25 sensor units to address the spatial variability of trace gases and aerosol mass concentrations in an urban environment. The analysis assesses road and harbor traffic monitoring, local construction dust monitoring, aerosol concentrations from fireworks, impact of sub-urban small scale wood combustion and detection of long-range transport episodes on a city scale. Our analysis illustrates that the calibrated network of Vaisala AQT530 air quality sensors provide new insights into the spatio-temporal variability of air pollution within the city. This information is beneficial to, for example, optimization of road dust and construction dust emission control as well as provides data to tackle air quality problems arising from traffic exhaust and localized wood combustion emissions in the residential areas.

Cell-based immunotherapies have had remarkable success in the clinic, specifically in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. However, these strategies have had limited efficacy in patients with solid tumors. To better understand the challenges involved, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) convened an initial workshop with immuno-oncology thought leaders in December 2018 and a follow-up workshop in December 2020. The goals of the NCI workshops on cell-based immunotherapy for solid tumors were to discuss the current state of the field of cell-based immunotherapy, obtain insights into critical knowledge gaps, and identify ways in which NCI could facilitate progress. At both meetings, subjects emphasized four main types of challenges in further developing cell-based immunotherapy for patients with solid tumors: scientific, technical, clinical, and regulatory. The scientific barriers include selecting appropriate targets, ensuring adequate trafficking of cell therapy products to tumor sites, overcoming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and identifying appropriate models for these investigations. While mouse models may provide some useful data, the majority of those that are commonly used are immunodeficient and unable to fully recapitulate the immune response in patients. There is therefore a need for enhanced support of small early-phase human clinical studies, preferably with adaptive trial designs, to provide proof of concept for novel cell therapy approaches. Furthermore, the requirements for manufacturing, shipping, and distributing cell-based therapies present technical challenges and regulatory questions, which many research institutions are not equipped to address. Overall, workshop subjects identified key areas where NCI support might help the research community in driving forward innovation and clinical utility: 1) provide focused research support on topics such as tumor target selection, immune cell fitness and persistence, cell trafficking, and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment; 2) support the rapid translation of preclinical findings into proof of concept clinical testing, harmonize clinical trial regimens, and facilitate early trial data sharing (including negative results); 3) expand manufacturing support for cell therapies, including vectors and reagents, and provide training programs for technical staff; and 4) develop and share standard operating procedures for cell handling and analytical assays, and work with the Food and Drug Administration to harmonize product characterization specifications.

The purpose of this study is to examine the stability of grain number per panicle in a collection of autumn oat genotypes under different climatic conditions. The biological material analysed consisted of 73 oat genotypes studied over a period of three years. The experimental data were obtained by biometric measurements and subsequently processed using the following linear regression models: Finlay-Wilkinson, Hardwick-Wood, Muir and Wrike. The grain number per panicle obtained varied according to the annual climatic conditions both as means and the intrapopulational variability. The Jefferson, Carrie and Florina cultivars, as well as the 4458, PA 725-4743 and PA 822-818 lines, exhibited a high dynamic stability associated with the above-average values of the grain number per panicle. Relative to this character, a total 53.10 % of the genotype x environment interaction is due to the heterogeneity of variances.

Strawberry cultivation is highly dependent on environmental parameters and energy during the winter. Two gothic greenhouses with different glazing material combinations, polyolefin–thermal screen (PoTS) and polyolefin–thermal screen–polyethylene (PoTSPe), were used for strawberry cultivation. The energy-saving capabilities of the two configurations and their impact on the microclimates of the greenhouses were investigated. The temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure deficit, leaf temperature, carbon dioxide concentration and solar radiation over the experimental period in the PoTS greenhouse were 13.0 ± 2.3°C, 75.8 ± 6.5%, 0.4 ± 0.1 kPa, 13.6 ± 1.7 °C, and 168.8 ± 82.3W/m2, respectively, whereas those of the PoTSPe condition were 13.1 ± 2.3 °C, 80.0 ± 5.7%, 0.3 ± 0.1 kPa, 13.5 ± 1.6 °C, and 183.1 ± 90.5 W/m2. The mean fuel consumption by the PoTS and PoTSPe greenhouses were 5.5 and 3.5 L, respectively. The performance analysis shows that both greenhouses were able to maintain the environmental parameters and leaf temperature within the recommended ranges, although more energy was consumed in the PoTS. More yield was obtained in the PoTS greenhouse, however, not significantly different from PoTSPe yield.

The Pra river catchment in Ghana is adversely affected by perennial flooding from high-intensity rainfall events. To aid in flood management at the catchment, the Gumbel extreme value distribution has been used to estimate the return periods of maxima rainfall, flood, and consecutive dry and wet days (CDD and CWD) for a period of 5 to 100 years. The results revealed an expected increase in maxima rainfall, CDD and CWD. Maxima rainfall favours the south of the catchment while the CDD decreases northward. Furthermore, an increase in the magnitude of CWD observed at the centre of the catchment had a maximum of approximately 30 days for the 100 year return period, while lower flood volumes had a higher recurrence of 50% to 100% for 1 to 2 year return periods. The inclusion of a projected increase in anthropogenic activities and climate factors at the catchment will slightly affect the magnitude of these variables for the various return periods. Nonetheless, the findings in this study will be of essential input to policy implementation of the Integrated Water Resource Management Plan for river catchments in Ghana, West Africa.

Dyes used by the textile, tannery, and food industries tend to pollute water bodies and must be removed to get clean water. Hydroxyapatite (HAP) was synthesized from eggshells using the wet precipitation process. The as-synthesized HAP was characterized using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The synthesized HAP was mixed with three different clays: halloysite (HNT), kaolinite (KAO), and bentonite (BENT). The removal efficiency values of methylene blue (MB) from the data showed that HAP-BENT adsorbents had higher values, followed by HAP-HNT and then HAP-KAO adsorbents. The combined masses of 24 mg, 34.5 mg, and 33 mg (representing 20%, 15%, and 10% of HAP-BENT mass) had average adsorption capacity values of 20.7 mg/g, 17.2 mg/g, and 17.9 mg/g, respectively. For each mass percentage, the adsorption capacity values were found to decrease with adsorbent dosage. The HAP-BENT composites had removal efficiency values of 98.4, 91.9%, and 91.9%, respectively. Adsorption data for the HAP-BENT adsorbents were found to be well described by the Langmuir isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The effect of temperature on adsorption capacity was evaluated and thermodynamical modeling was undertaken. The thermodynamical modeling predicts that based on the value of the change in enthalpy and Gibbs free energy the process was exothermic and spontaneous. This work confirms the potential of HAP-clay composites in removing MB from water.

Background: Cervical cancer (CC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Ghana is a low-middle- income country with annual diagnosed cases of 3,151 and 2,119 deaths. The high prevalence rate of cervical cancer in Ghana is mainly due to ineffective preventive measures and insufficient knowledge about the disease. Therefore, our objective was to evaluate the level of knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer and attitude toward human papillomavirus and its vaccine among Ghanaians.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional survey on the awareness of cervical cancer and attitude toward human papillomavirus and its vaccine was carried out from March 2019 to February 2020. SPSS v. 23.0 was used in the data analysis. The participants' demographic characteristics, knowledge of cervical carcinoma, human papillomavirus vaccine and HPV, and the likelihood to be vaccinated were represented as percentages and frequencies. The difference between males and females was assessed using the chi-square test. The logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship of possible related indicators with the willingness to receive the HPV vaccine. A p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: A total of 1,376 participants were involved in the final analysis. Among the 1,376 participants involved in this survey, 1,240 participants (90.1%) representing 456 males (33.1%) and 784 females (57.0%) were aware of the terminology “cervical cancer” with a significant p = 0.001. When stratified by gender, women had significantly greater knowledge, compared to men in terms of “cervical cancer being common in middle age (35–50) females” (75.5 vs. 67.5%, respectively, p ≤ 0.001). When stratified by gender, women had significantly greater knowledge of human papillomavirus (54.5 vs. 43.6%, respectively, p < 0.001) and the human papillomavirus vaccine (39.3 vs. 33.1%, respectively, p = 0.019) compared to men.Conclusion: Majority of the respondents had poor knowledge regarding cervical cancer risk factors, symptoms, HPV, and its vaccine. Hence, this indicates a wakeup call for government to increase the awareness and knowledge level via the media and health professionals.

Street vegetation has been found to have both positive and negative impacts on pedestrian-level air quality, but the net effect has remained unclear. In this study, the effect of street trees on aerosol mass (PM10 and PM2.5) and number in a boulevard-type street canyon with high traffic volumes in Helsinki is examined using the large-eddy simulation model PALM. Including a detailed aerosol module and a canopy module to comprise permeable trees, PALM allows to examine the effect of street trees in depth. The main aim is to understand the relative importance of dry deposition and the aerodynamic impact of street trees on the different aerosol measures at pedestrian-level and to find a suitable street-tree layout that would minimise the pedestrian-level aerosol particle concentrations over the boulevard pavements. The layout scenarios were decided together with urban planners who needed science-based knowledge to support the building of new neighbourhoods with boulevard-type streets in Helsinki. Two wind conditions with wind being parallel and perpendicular to the boulevard under neutral atmospheric stratification are examined.Adding street trees to the boulevard increases aerosol particle concentrations on the pavements up to 123%, 72% and 53% for PM10, PM2.5 and total number, respectively. This shows decreased ventilation to be more important for local aerosol particle concentrations than dry deposition on vegetation. This particularly for PM10 and PM2.5 whereas for aerosol number, dominated by small particles, the importance of dry deposition increases. Therefore the studied aerosol measure is important when the effect of vegetation on pedestrian-level air quality is quantified. Crown volume fraction in the street space is one of the main determining factors for elevated mass concentrations on the pavements. The lowest pedestrian-level mass concentrations are seen with three rows of trees of variable height, whereas the lowest number concentrations with four rows of uniform trees. The tree-height variation allows stronger vertical turbulent transport with parallel wind and largest volumetric flow rates with perpendicular wind. Introducing low (height < 1 m) hedges under trees between the traffic lanes and pavements is found to be a less effective mitigation method for particle mass than introducing tree-height variability, and for particle number less effective than maximising the tree volume in the street canyon.The results show how street trees in a boulevard-type street canyon lead to decreased pedestrian-level air quality with the effect being particularly strong for larger aerosol particles. However, with careful planning of the street vegetation, significant reductions in pedestrian-level aerosol particle concentrations can be obtained.

Background. Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by the Leishmania parasite and transmitted by the female phlebotomine sandfly. The disease can affect the skin (least fatal) or internal organs (most fatal). Current treatment options for leishmaniasis have a number of adverse effects, and there appears to be resistance by the protozoan parasite (Leishmania spp.). Reports suggest that quinine sulphate, not indicated for leishmaniasis, is effective in killing the Leishmania parasite. Indeed, the efficacy of any drug is dependent on the concentration at the target site, which is also almost dependent on drug formulation. The current study assessed the pharmacokinetic profile of the microparticulate formulation of quinine sulphate and its in vitro and in vivo efficacy against Leishmania donovani. Methods. Quinine sulphate was encapsulated in bovine serum albumin by the spray-drying method. Quinine sulphate microparticles were evaluated for size, zeta potential, drug content, encapsulation efficiency, and in vitro release properties. Afterwards, the pharmacokinetic characteristics of quinine sulphate microparticles were estimated and in vivo efficacy studies were also conducted. Results. The size range of the quinine sulphate microparticles was between 2.0 and 5.0 µm. Microparticles had an average zeta potential of −35.2 mV and an encapsulation efficiency of 94.5%. Also, Cmax, t1/2, and AUC were all significantly desirable for quinine sulphate microparticles compared to the drug powder. Quinine sulphate microparticles significantly reduced parasite load in rat organs than amphotericin B. Conclusion. Overall, quinine sulphate microparticles had better pharmacokinetic profile and showed higher efficacy against Leishmania donovani parasites in vivo. Thus, quinine sulphate microparticles have the potential, especially, in treating visceral leishmaniasis.

Purpose: Data on prostate cancer (PCa) treatment in Africa remains under-reported. We present a review of the management of PCa at the cancer center of the largest tertiary referral facility in Ghana, with emphasis on curative treatment. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data on 1,074 patients seen at the National Center for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine from 2003 to 2016. Patient and disease characteristics at presentation are presented using descriptive statistics. The χ2 and Fisher’s exact tests and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze differences between categorical and continuous variables, respectively. Methods of survival analysis were used to evaluate the relative risk of biochemical disease-free survival (bDFS). Results: Seventy percent of the study population presented with localized disease. High-risk disease presentation accounted for 64.4% of these patients. Only 57.6% of patients with localized disease received curative radiotherapy. The 5-year overall survival for the curative cohort was 96% (interquartile range, 93% to 98%). The 5-year bDFS rates for low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups were 95%, 70%, and 48%, respectively. Both Gleason score and pretreatment prostate-specific antigen were significant predictors for bDFS in multivariable analysis. Conclusion: We show that the majority of patients with PCa have locally advanced disease at the time of presentation for radiotherapy. bDFS was significantly better for low- and intermediate-risk than for high-risk disease. These data emphasize the dire need to re-evaluate screening and patient education of PCa in regions of the world with high incidence and mortality as well as the need for improved access to care and treatment delivery.

The decision of an individual to vote or not and to choose one of the candidates participating in the competition on the electoral market is the result of a cumulus of factors that act directly or indirectly in this process. Most of the papers address the role of opinion formers in the process of forming the voting option by choosing one of the following two ways: (1) either the Opinion Leadership Model (Katz, 1957, Keller & Berry, 2003) (2) or Celebrity Political Endorsement (Henneberg S., Chen Y., 2007) as a primary source of information for voters, delivered to them through marketing strategies similar to those of supporting credible personalities in front of consumers, general prescriptors. The development of the model to be studied also departs from the need to unify, in a single model, the action that people with special characteristics exert on voters, in order for them to shape their voting option.

Introduction: The present study aimed to generate intensity-modulated beams with Aluminium compensating filters for a conventional telecobalt machine based on the outputs of a treatment planning system (TPS) performing forward planning and cannot simulate directly the compensating filter. Materials and Methods: In order to achieve the beam intensity modulation during treatment planning with the TPS, we used a bolus placed on the surface of a tissue-equivalent phantom. The treatment plans replicated on the telecobalt machine with the bolus were represented with compensating filters placed at a certain distance from the phantom surface. An equation was proposed for the conversion of the bolus thickness to the compensating filter thickness such that any point within the phantom would receive the planned dose. Correction factors were introduced into the proposed equation to account for the influences of field size, treatment depth, and applied bolus thickness. The proposed equation was obtained based on the analyses of empirical data measured in a full scatter water phantom with and without the compensating filter. Results: According to the results, the dosimetric verification of the proposed approach outputs in a solid water phantom with calibrated Gafchromic EBT2 films were comparable to that of the TPS with deviation of ±4.73% (mean: 2.98±1.05%). Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, the discrepancy between the measured doses and TPS-estimated doses was within the tolerance of ±5%, which is recommended for dose delivery in external beam radiotherapy. Therefore, the proposed approach is recommended for clinical application.

Strawberry cultivation depends on environmental factors, making its cultivation in the greenhouse a challenge in the winter. This study investigated the most appropriate greenhouse cladding material and thermal screen configuration for strawberry production in the winter by considering greenhouse air temperature, relative humidity (RH, vapor pressure deficit (VPD, and solar radiation (SR). Two gothic greenhouses with different cladding materials and thermal screen configurations, namely, the single-layer greenhouse and double-layer greenhouse, were used for strawberry cultivation. The greenhouse microclimate was controlled by natural ventilation aided with circulating fans and boilers. Strawberries were planted on 5 greenhouse benches, 660 stands per greenhouse. Daily environmental parameters were recorded and processed into daytime and nighttime. The impacts of cladding material-thermal screen configurations on temperature, RH, VPD, and SR, and the subsequent effect on strawberry yield in both greenhouse systems, were evaluated. Comparing the environmental parameters recorded in the single-layer and double-layer greenhouse showed that VPD and SR were significantly different in the daytime, whereas RH and VPD were significantly different in the nighttime. The post hoc test further showed that RH, VPD, and SR in both greenhouses were significantly different. The significant difference in RH and VPD can be attributed to the inner layer of polyethene in the double-layer greenhouse, which sealed up the pores of the thermal screen, resulting in humidity buildup, causing a lower VPD than in the single-layer greenhouse. The single-layer greenhouse yield was 14% greater than the double-layer greenhouse yield and can be attributed to the higher daytime VPD and lower RH achieved in the single-layer greenhouse at night. The study established that though the single-layer greenhouse system was cost-effective regarding construction, the operating cost of the single-layer greenhouse was higher than that of the double-layer greenhouse.

In the above article [1], we importantly missed out on generalizing the application scope to the inter-disciplinary contributions made in the article. It is essential to educate the readers on an increasing variety of novel and highly practical modern-day application families where the contributions made in [1] are equally applicable—not just the evident application pertaining to mobile-ad ecosystems, as in [1].

Recently, heat and mass distributions within a greenhouse were assumed to be homogeneous. Heat is gained or lost in absolute terms, and crop contribution in a greenhouse or its effect is not considered. In this study, statistical analyses were conducted to establish the significance of heat and mass variation at sensor nodes in two single-span and multi-span greenhouses. Three greenhouses were used in this study, 168 m2 floor area a single-layered (SLG), double-layered (DLG) single-span gothic roof type greenhouses, and 7572.6 m2 floor area multi-span greenhouse (MSG). The microclimatic parameters investigated were temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), solar radiation (SR), carbon dioxide (CO2), and vapor pressure deficit (VPD). To check their horizontal distribution, all microclimate data collected from each sensor node in each greenhouse were subjected to descriptive statistics and Tukey honestly significant difference (HSD) test. The lowest minimum temperatures of 2.93 °C, 3.33 °C and 10.50 °C were recorded at sensor points in SLG, DLG, and MSG, respectively, whereas the highest maximum temperatures of 29.17 °C, 29.07 °C and 27.20 °C were recorded at sensor point, in SLG, DLG, and MSG, respectively. The difference between the center and the side into the single-span was approximately 0.88–1.0 °C and in the MSG was approximately 1.03 °C. Significant variation was observed in the horizontal distribution of T, RH, SR, and VPD within SLG, DLG, and MSG. Also significant was CO2 in the MSG. Estimating the energy demand of greenhouses should be done based on the distribution rather than assuming microclimatic parameters homogeneity, especially for T, with VPD as a control parameter. Such estimation should also be done using a crop model that considers instant changes in air and crop temperature.

During a conversation or when listening to music, auditory and visual information are combined automatically into audiovisual objects. However, it is still poorly understood how specific type of visual information shapes neural processing of sounds in lifelike stimulus environments. Here we applied multi-voxel pattern analysis to investigate how naturally matching visual input modulates supratemporal cortex activity during processing of naturalistic acoustic speech, singing and instrumental music. Bayesian logistic regression classifiers with sparsity-promoting priors were trained to predict whether the stimulus was audiovisual or auditory, and whether it contained piano playing, speech, or singing. The predictive performances of the classifiers were tested by leaving one participant at a time for testing and training the model using the remaining 15 participants. The signature patterns associated with unimodal auditory stimuli encompassed distributed locations mostly in the middle and superior temporal gyrus (STG/MTG). A pattern regression analysis, based on a continuous acoustic model, revealed that activity in some of these MTG and STG areas were associated with acoustic features present in speech and music stimuli. Concurrent visual stimulus modulated activity in bilateral MTG (speech), lateral aspect of right anterior STG (singing), and bilateral parietal opercular cortex (piano). Our results suggest that specific supratemporal brain areas are involved in processing complex natural speech, singing, and piano playing, and other brain areas located in anterior (facial speech) and posterior (music-related hand actions) supratemporal cortex are influenced by related visual information. Those anterior and posterior supratemporal areas have been linked to stimulus identification and sensory-motor integration, respectively.

The present paper reviews the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991), the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and the theory of technology acceptance model (Davis, 1989) in order to better perceive their possible future application in the marketing field, namely in the process of using electronic commerce at the organizational level. While previous empirical studies have focused primarily on one of the theories, in an attempt to rule the advantages and / or disadvantages which would support the findings and hypothesis presented, it is the authors’ belief that all three theories greatly contribute, each one in a unique way. However, several pitfalls in methodology may be encountered, therefore further empirical research is required.

The power of social networks and the internet as a channel of communication has established a radical change in the way people communicate. The field of politics is no exception. Over the last decade, politics has been one of the most changeable areas since the emergence of social networks, becoming the medium that most dramatically altered the meaning, scope and rhythm of media crises for political actors. This article aims at describing the use and evolution of social networks, with a focus on the political field. In addition, this paper integrates a brief case study of the online campaigns of 2014 presidential elections and the 2016 parliamentary elections in Romania, in order to see how the political actors communicate and the online reactions generated by their messages. The results indicate that overall the 2016 online campaigns generated low interest from users, one of the reasons being that the parties used social networks as a way of disseminating information and did not truly engage with the voters.

Quantifying human impact on the environment is increasingly important and particularly so in complex mosaic landscapes. Such landscapes are prolific in the developing world, notably in West African, small holder cocoa farming communities. Human Appropriated Net Primary Productivity (HANPP) is a metric which has been developed to quantify the human impact on the environment and has been used in a number of studies globally. However, most operationalization's of HANPP have been done on a coarse global scale or a very local scale, and few studies exist of complex mosaic landscapes. This study utilizes Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAV), or drones, to classify land use and HANPP for three cocoa farming regions in Ghana's Central Region. The results of the study indicate while all regions differ in land use composition, the primary crop for all is cocoa, followed by palm and then land that was previously cultivated which has been left fallow. The average HANPP was 44% for all measured regions, calculated using net primary productivity (NPP) values of an adjacent natural tropical forest. The HANPP for the three regions studied was found to be approximately 6.69, 8.00, and 9.85 Mg C ha−1 yr−1. These values are higher than those that have been reported in some widely accepted global studies, and highlight the need for more regional and landscape scale studies to supplement global assessments of HANPP.