Search

Background: HIV Self-Testing (HIVST) holds great significance in the fight against the HIV epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It offers a convenient and confidential option for individuals to know their HIV status and seek appropriate care and support. For women in this region, where stigma, discrimination, and lack of access to healthcare services are prevalent, HIVST can empower them to take control of their health and make informed decisions. However, no study in the region has been conducted on this topic. Hence, this study aimed to fill the evidence, and population gaps by identifying women's HIVST knowledge, and utilization, and its associated factors in SSA. Methods: The data used were gathered from the most recent demographic and health surveys conducted in SSA nations between 2015 and 2022. We incorporated DHS data from 21 countries into our investigation. For our analysis, we used a weighted sample of 270,241 women overall was utilized. To handle both individual and community level factors, a multilevel logistic regression was used for the analysis. The adjusted odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval were then presented, and variables with univariate multilevel regression p-values of ≤ 0.25 and in multivariable multilevel logistic regression < 0.05 p value were considered significant factors of HIVST. Results: The overall prevalence of knowledge, and utilization of HIVST among women was about 2.17 (95% CI: 2.12, 2.23) only. Women aged 25–34 years old (AOR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.65,1.92), and 35–49 years old (AOR = 1.33, 95% CI: 1.22,1.46), primary education(AOR = 1.25, 95%CI: 1.12, 1.38), and secondary/higher education (AOR = 3.08, 95% CI: 2.79, 3.41), poorer (AOR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.38), middle (AOR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.37), richer (AOR = 1.45, 95% CI 1.45, 1.64), and richest (AOR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.59, 2.05), employed (AOR = 1.73 05% CI: 1.62, 1.85), mass media exposure (AOR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.31, 1.49), knew modern contraception (AOR = 2.75, 95% CI: 1.84, 4.13), health facility delivery (AOR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.37), being from urban (AOR = 1.53, 95% CI: 1.63, 1.73), divorced or widowed (AOR = 77, 95% CI:1.13, 1.34), have more than one sexual partners (AOR =, 95% CI: 1.24, 1.41), heard about STIs (AOR 7.47 =, 95% CI: 5.16, 10.81), high community ANC coverage (AOR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.31, 1.63), high community mass media (AOR = 1.37 95% CI: 1.21, 1.56), Central/Southern Africa (AOR = 0.66 95% CI: 0.59,0.74), and East Africa regions (AOR = 0.87 95% CI: 0.81,0.94) were associated with the knowledge and utilization of HIVST. Conclusions: The level of knowledge and utilization of HIVST among women in SSA was very low. To improve this situation, maternal health services can be enhanced. This can be achieved by facilitating institutional delivery, promoting access to modern contraception, increasing ANC coverage, empowering women's associations, creating culturally respectful mass media content, and involving rural and economically disadvantaged women. By implementing these measures, we can enhance women's knowledge and improve their use of HIVST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background HIV Self-Testing (HIVST) holds great significance in the fight against the HIV epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It offers a convenient and confidential option for individuals to know their HIV status and seek appropriate care and support. For women in this region, where stigma, discrimination, and lack of access to healthcare services are prevalent, HIVST can empower them to take control of their health and make informed decisions. However, no study in the region has been conducted on this topic. Hence, this study aimed to fill the evidence, and population gaps by identifying women’s HIVST knowledge, and utilization, and its associated factors in SSA. Methods The data used were gathered from the most recent demographic and health surveys conducted in SSA nations between 2015 and 2022. We incorporated DHS data from 21 countries into our investigation. For our analysis, we used a weighted sample of 270,241 women overall was utilized. To handle both individual and community level factors, a multilevel logistic regression was used for the analysis. The adjusted odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval were then presented, and variables with univariate multilevel regression p-values of ≤ 0.25 and in multivariable multilevel logistic regression

Frequent occurrence of drought in winter and spring, combined with soil P deficiency limits nitrogen absorption of winter wheat in southwest wheat. This study aims to investigate the effects of straw mulching from autumn fallow and phosphorus application on root NO3- uptake dynamic potential, nitrogen uptake and utilization, chlorophyll content, and grain yield in wheat, which provides the theoretical basis for high and stable yield of wheat as well as efficient use of nutrients. The experiment was carried out at Renshou in Sichuan province from 2020 to 2022. Two factors spilt-plot design was employed with main plot of maize straw mulching (SM) and no mulching (NSM), and three phosphorus levels 0 (P0), 75 (P75), and 120 (P120) kg hm-2 were set as sub-plot. Results showed that straw mulching and phosphorus application significantly increased above-ground phosphorus accumulation. Compared with NSM, SM increased root tip NO3- net absorption rate, grain nitrogen accumulation, nitrogen transport, nitrogen assimilation, nitrogen partial productivity and grain yield by 28.2%, 8.4%, 9.0%, 41.9%, 23.3%, and 21.9%, respectively. Compared with P0, P75 and P120 increased by 35.1%-37.6%, 12.6%-19.0%, 7.1%-9.3%, 35.7%-60.5%, 17.6%-23.8%, 17.2%-23.6%, respectively. Compared with NSM, SM increased the content of chlorophyll in flag leaf at grain filling stage, thus improving grain yield. In summary, straw mulching and phosphorus application can promote NO3- absorption in root tip of wheat and chlorophyll content, significantly increase post anthesis nitrogen absorption and reserved N remobilized to developing grains, and ultimately improve grain yield. Considering the economic benefits and yield returns, it is recommended to apply 75 kg hm-2 of phosphate fertilizer with straw mulching for high yield and efficiency cultivation of wheat in southwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer, accounting for 6.6%of all female cancers, and ranks as the second leading cause of female cancer deaths. Cervical cancer can be avoided if asymptomatic women are screened for precancerous cervical lesions and treated before they progress to invasive disease. Female health workforces are expected to be in a better position to be motivated and initiate society towards the screening by being role models, but there have been few studies done in Ethiopia to assess the utilization of cervical cancer screening services and its associated factors among female health workforces. Objective: To assess utilization of cervical cancer screening service and associated factors among female health workforces in public health institutions Bale zone, Sothern Ethiopia. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 266 female health workforces from May 1 st to May 30th, 2021 using a self-administered questionnaire. Data was entered on Epi data 3.1 software and exported to Statistical package for social science (SPSS) software version 25 for analysis. Logistic regression was used to identify the independent predictors of cervical cancer screening. Statistical significance for the multivariable logistic regression analysis was set at p

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes constitute about 16.6 percent and 8.6 percent of India's population, respectively (Census of India, 2011). This study was purposively conducted in Hisar district of Haryana state. Five villages with predominantly large Scheduled Caste population were selected. 40 women were randomly selected from each village (200 in total). Well-structured pre-tested interview schedules were created for the respondents. The findings also revealed that awareness of various welfare schemes was high among most of the respondents, but utilization of the schemes was low. Most of the respondents were satisfied with the schemes, but some were dissatisfied because they did not take full advantage of the schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption in data centers has recently become a major concern due to the rising operational costs and scalability issues. Recent solutions to this problem propose the principle of energy proportionality, i.e., the amount of energy consumed by the server nodes must be proportional to the amount of work performed. For data parallelism and fault tolerance purposes, most common file systems used in Map Reduce-type clusters maintain a set of replicas for each data block. A covering set is a group of nodes that together contain at least one replica of the data blocks needed for performing computing tasks. In this work, we develop and analyze algorithms to maintain energy proportionality by discovering a covering set that minimizes energy consumption while placing the remaining nodes in low power standby mode. Our algorithms can also discover covering sets in heterogeneous computing environments. In order to allow more data parallelism, we generalize our algorithms so that it can discover k-covering sets, i.e., a set of nodes that contain at least k replicas of the data blocks. Our experimental results show that we can achieve substantial energy saving without significant performance loss in diverse cluster configurations and working environments.

We describe laboratory and field results of a novel arsenic removal adsorbent called 'Arsenic Removal Using Bottom Ash' (ARUBA). ARUBA is prepared by coating particles of coal bottom ash, a waste material from coal fired power plants, with iron (hydr)oxide. The coating process is simple and conducted at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Material costs for ARUBA are estimated to be low (~;;$0.08 per kg) and arsenic remediation with ARUBA has the potential to be affordable to resource-constrained communities. ARUBA is used for removing arsenic via a dispersal-and-removal process, and we envision that ARUBA would be used in community-scale water treatment centers. We show that ARUBA is able to reduce arsenic concentrations in contaminated Bangladesh groundwater to below the Bangladesh standard of 50 ppb. Using the Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.77) ARUBA's adsorption capacity in treating real groundwater is 2.6x10-6 mol/g (0.20 mg/g). Time-to-90percent (defined as the time interval for ARUBA to remove 90percent of the total amount of arsenic that is removed at equilibrium) is less than one hour. Reaction rates (pseudo-second-order kinetic model, R2 >_ 0.99) increase from 2.4x105 to 7.2x105 g mol-1 min-1 as the groundwater arsenic concentration decreases from 560 to 170 ppb. We show that ARUBA's arsenic adsorption density (AAD), defined as the milligrams of arsenic removed at equilibrium per gram of ARUBA added, is linearly dependent on the initial arsenic concentration of the groundwater sample, for initial arsenic concentrations of up to 1600 ppb and an ARUBA dose of 4.0 g/L. This makes it easy to determine the amount of ARUBA required to treat a groundwater source when its arsenic concentration is known and less than 1600 ppb. Storing contaminated groundwater for two to three days before treatment is seen to significantly increase ARUBA's AAD. ARUBA can be separated from treated water by coagulation and clarification, which is expected to be less expensive than filtration of micron-scale particles, further contributing to the affordability of a community-scale water treatment center.

The addition of storage technologies such as lead-acid batteries, flow batteries, or heat storage can potentially improve the economic and environmental attractiveness of on-site generation such as PV, fuel cells, reciprocating engines or microturbines (with or without CHP), and can contribute to enhanced demand response. Preliminary analyses for a Californian nursing home indicate that storage technologies respond effectively to time-varying electricity prices, i.e., by charging batteries during periods of low electricity prices and discharging them during peak hours. While economic results do not make a compelling case for storage, they indicate that storage technologies significantly alter the residual load profile, which may lower carbon emissions as well as energy costs depending on the test site, its load profile, and DER technology adoption.

In the race to apply new technologies in "high-tech" facilities such as data centers, laboratories, and cleanrooms, much emphasis has been placed on improving service, building capacity, and increasing speed. These facilities are socially and economically important, as part of the critical infrastructure for pharmaceuticals, electronics, communications, and many other sectors. With a singular focus on throughput, some important design issues can be overlooked, such as the energy efficiency of individual equipment (e.g., lasers, routers and switches) as well as the integration of high-tech equipment into the power distribution system and the building envelope. Among technology-based businesses, improving energy efficiency presents an often untapped opportunity to increase profits, enhance process control, maximize asset value, improve the workplace environment, and manage a variety of business risks. Oddly enough, the adoption of energy efficiency improvements in this sector lags behind many others. As a result, millions of dollars are left on the table with each year of operation.

Introduction: Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer, accounting for 6.6%of all female cancers, and ranks as the second leading cause of female cancer deaths. Cervical cancer can be avoided if asymptomatic women are screened for precancerous cervical lesions and treated before they progress to invasive disease. Female health workforces are expected to be in a better position to be motivated and initiate society towards the screening by being role models, but there have been few studies done in Ethiopia to assess the utilization of cervical cancer screening services and its associated factors among female health workforces., Objective: To assess utilization of cervical cancer screening service and associated factors among female health workforces in public health institutions Bale zone, Sothern Ethiopia., Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 266 female health workforces from May 1 st to May 30th, 2021 using a self-administered questionnaire. Data was entered on Epi data 3.1 software and exported to Statistical package for social science (SPSS) software version 25 for analysis. Logistic regression was used to identify the independent predictors of cervical cancer screening. Statistical significance for the multivariable logistic regression analysis was set at p < 0.05., Result: Out of the total sample size (n = 266), 258 have responded to the questionnaire completely, making the response rate 97 %. The utilization of cervical cancer screening services was 38 (14.7 %). There were significant associations between working in hospitals with an adjusted odd ratio (AOR [95 % CI] = 4.814 [1.774-13.06]) and serving 7 years and above [95 % 44 CI = 5.988 [2.096-17.1]) and utilization of cervical cancer screening services., Conclusion: and recommendations: The proportion of utilization of cervical cancer screening services among female health workforces in Bale Zone was very low. Working in hospitals and prolonged work experience were independent predictors of the utilization of cervical cancer screening services. Sustaining awareness creation and sensitization of screening through training and experience sharing should be given broad emphasis for female health workforces to increase their utilization of screening services., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Large commercial buildings generally do not operate at economically achievable levels of energy efficiency. Performance monitoring projects have shown whole-building energy savings of 20% or more through improved operation and maintenance practices. The opportunity for O&M savings is related to systemic problems associated with the lack of feedback available from current Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCS). Today’s EMCS are designed for control, with limited capabilities in sensing, archiving, data analysis, diagnostics, and data visualization. This paper discusses a multi-year, multi-institutional project to develop and demonstrate an Information Monitoring and Diagnostics System (IMDS). The system is designed to address common O&M problems and the needs of office building owners and property managers to address these problems. The IMDS includes about 50 points of whole-building and cooling plant data, plus a set of standard diagnostics plots to evaluate key performance metrics and curves. Five unique features of the project are (1) sophisticated building operators and engineers as users, (2) permanent installation, (3) high-quality sensing, (4) high-frequency data archives, and (5) top-down design (i.e., whole building, system, and component data). The system does not provide control functions. We review the installation and early results from the use of the IMDS. An office building demonstration site was selected because of the technical reputation and interest of the chief engineer and on-site operator. We also discuss the technology adoption process and decisions involved in such innovations.

Carbon-dioxide (CO 2) is a critical heat trapping greenhouse gas (GHG) that results in global warming. Thus, many countries across the world including Canada have agreed for national level emission reduction targets. A significant fraction of the anthropogenic CO 2 is emitted from fossil fuel-based energy generation. Carbon-dioxide capture, storage, and utilization (CCSU) technologies are currently the sole means of capturing CO 2 emissions generated by such energy systems. However, only a limited amount of research has been done on CCSU integration in community energy systems. This review aims at exploring the prospects of CCSU integration in community energy systems to achieve zero-emission communities. A systematic literature review was conducted to critically analyze the feasibility of community level carbon capturing. A particular focus was given to the techno-economic aspects of carbon capture integration in community energy systems. The drivers and barriers to CCSU implementation in Canadian communities were discussed under techno-economic, socio-political, legal, and environmental themes in the form of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. Recommendations for overcoming the above barriers were provided from the findings of the review. Finally, a road map aimed towards assessing the suitability of CCSU integration in Canadian communities was defined. The knowledge compiled through this study will aid investors and decision-makers to make informed decisions when planning zero-emission communities. • CCSU is currently the most effective option to capture CO 2 from fossil fuel based combustion systems. • Success of a CCSU project depends on the environmental desirability, technical feasibility, and financial viability. • Carbon capturing has the potential to be implemented in community scale energy systems. • Utilization of captured carbon can provide economic gains better than that from storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]