8,864 research outputs found

    A Multi-level Analysis on Implementation of Low-Cost IVF in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study of Uganda.

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    Introduction: Globally, infertility is a major reproductive disease that affects an estimated 186 million people worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the burden of infertility is considerably high, affecting one in every four couples of reproductive age. Furthermore, infertility in this context has severe psychosocial, emotional, economic and health consequences. Absence of affordable fertility services in Sub-Saharan Africa has been justified by overpopulation and limited resources, resulting in inequitable access to infertility treatment compared to developed countries. Therefore, low-cost IVF (LCIVF) initiatives have been developed to simplify IVF-related treatment, reduce costs, and improve access to treatment for individuals in low-resource contexts. However, there is a gap between the development of LCIVF initiatives and their implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Uganda is the first country in East and Central Africa to undergo implementation of LCIVF initiatives within its public health system at Mulago Women’s Hospital. Methods: This was an exploratory, qualitative, single, case study conducted at Mulago Women’s Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. The objective of this study was to explore how LCIVF initiatives have been implemented within the public health system of Uganda at the macro-, meso- and micro-level. Primary qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interviews, hospital observations informal conversations, and document review. Using purposive and snowball sampling, a total of twenty-three key informants were interviewed including government officials, clinicians (doctors, nurses, technicians), hospital management, implementers, patient advocacy representatives, private sector practitioners, international organizational representatives, educational institution, and professional medical associations. Sources of secondary data included government and non-government reports, hospital records, organizational briefs, and press outputs. Using a multi-level data analysis approach, this study undertook a hybrid inductive/deductive thematic analysis, with the deductive analysis guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Findings: Factors facilitating implementation included international recognition of infertility as a reproductive disease, strong political advocacy and oversight, patient needs & advocacy, government funding, inter-organizational collaboration, tension to change, competition in the private sector, intervention adaptability & trialability, relative priority, motivation &advocacy of fertility providers and specialist training. While barriers included scarcity of embryologists, intervention complexity, insufficient knowledge, evidence strength & quality of intervention, inadequate leadership engagement & hospital autonomy, poor public knowledge, limited engagement with traditional, cultural, and religious leaders, lack of salary incentives and concerns of revenue loss associated with low-cost options. Research contributions: This study contributes to knowledge of factors salient to implementation of LCIVF initiatives in a Sub-Saharan context. Effective implementation of these initiatives requires (1) sustained political support and favourable policy & legislation, (2) public sensitization and engagement of traditional, cultural, and religious leaders (3) strengthening local innovation and capacity building of fertility health workers, in particular embryologists (4) sustained implementor leadership engagement and inter-organizational collaboration and (5) proven clinical evidence and utilization of LCIVF initiatives in innovator countries. It also adds to the literature on the applicability of the CFIR framework in explaining factors that influence successful implementation in developing countries and offer opportunities for comparisons across studies

    Openness in Education as a Praxis: From Individual Testimonials to Collective Voices

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    Why is Openness in Education important, and why is it critically needed at this moment? As manifested in our guiding question, the significance of Openness in Education and its immediate necessity form the heart of this collaborative editorial piece. This rather straightforward, yet nuanced query has sparked this collective endeavour by using individual testimonies, which may also be taken as living narratives, to reveal the value of Openness in Education as a praxis. Such testimonies serve as rich, personal narratives, critical introspections, and experience-based accounts that function as sources of data. The data gleaned from these narratives points to the understanding of Openness in Education as a complex, multilayered concept intricately woven into an array of values. These range from aspects such as sharing, access, flexibility, affordability, enlightenment, barrier-removal, empowerment, care, individual agency, trust, innovation, sustainability, collaboration, co-creation, social justice, equity, transparency, inclusivity, decolonization, democratisation, participation, liberty, and respect for diversity. This editorial, as a product of collective endeavour, invites its readers to independently engage with individual narratives, fostering the creation of unique interpretations. This call stems from the distinctive character of each narrative as they voice individual researchers’ perspectives from around the globe, articulating their insights within their unique situational contexts

    Visual Programming Paradigm for Organizations in Multi-Agent Systems

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    Over the past few years, due to a fast digitalization process, business activities witnessed the adoption of new technologies, such as Multi-Agent Systems, to increase the autonomy of their activities. However, the complexity of these technologies often hinders the capability of domain experts, who do not possess coding skills, to exploit them directly. To take advantage of these individuals' expertise in their field, the idea of a user-friendly and accessible Integrated Development Environment arose. Indeed, efforts have already been made to develop a block-based visual programming language for software agents. Although the latter project represents a huge step forward, it does not provide a solution for addressing complex, real-world use cases where interactions and coordination among single entities are crucial. To address this problem, Multi-Agent Oriented Programming introduces organization as a first-class abstraction for designing and implementing Multi-Agent Systems. Therefore, this thesis aims to provide a solution allowing users to impose an organization on top of the agents easily. Since ease of use and intuitiveness remain the key points for this project, users will be able to define organizations through visual language and an intuitive development environment

    Operatic Pasticcios in 18th-Century Europe

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    In Early Modern times, techniques of assembling, compiling and arranging pre-existing material were part of the established working methods in many arts. In the world of 18th-century opera, such practices ensured that operas could become a commercial success because the substitution or compilation of arias fitting the singer's abilities proved the best recipe for fulfilling the expectations of audiences. Known as »pasticcios« since the 18th-century, these operas have long been considered inferior patchwork. The volume collects essays that reconsider the pasticcio, contextualize it, define its preconditions, look at its material aspects and uncover its aesthetical principles

    Block chain technology for digital financial inclusion in the industry 4.0, towards sustainable development?

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    There is a lot of hope that blockchain technology may be used to standardize money transactions and increase access to banking. It is believed that regulators and industry professionals have looked into the possibility of using blockchain technology to modernize and even replace the infrastructure that currently supports international payments and remittances, such as correspondent banking, in order to ensure that transactions can be verified and recorded using blockchain technology in a distributed ledger. The purpose of this study was to analyze how blockchain technology has helped to include previously underserved populations in the mainstream financial system, and to remark on the best practices and lessons learned from sustainable development. Using a systematic literature review, the study discovered the many ways in which blockchain technology can facilitate digital financial inclusion, including its application in financial transactions, its utility as a tool for increasing financial savings, its use in the provision of credit, and its application in the provision of insurance. According to the findings, even though the global goals do not specifically target financial inclusion, providing access to financial services for the majority of the population is a critical enabler for several of the global goals. Therefore, the study concluded that sustainable development can be ensured on many fronts if the technology behind blockchains can be successfully used to improve financial inclusion. If governments, especially in developing countries, are serious about increasing citizens’ access to financial services, they must prioritize blockchain investment

    PLA Logistics and Sustainment: PLA Conference 2022

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    The US Army War College People’s Liberation Army Conference (PLA) Conference was held March 31 to April 2, 2022, at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The conference focused on PLA logistics and sustainment. As the PLA continues to build and modernize its combat forces, it is important to examine if the capabilities meant to support combat operations are also being developed. Specific topics included: 1) China’s national-level logistics, including how China mobilizes national resources for the military and how it provides joint logistics support to the PLA Theater Commands; 2) the logistics capabilities of the different PLA services, especially the Army, Navy, and Air Forces; 3) PLA logistics in China’s remote regions, such as airpower projection in the Western Theater Command along the Indian border; and, 4) the PLA’s ability to sustain overseas operations at its base in Djibouti. Despite notable potential shortfalls and points of friction, the PLA has successfully sustained counterpiracy maritime operations for many years and conducted noncombatant evacuation operations well-distant from China. It is increasingly able to move forces across the vast distances of China and conduct large training exercises. Far more must be known about PLA sustainment and logistics before the hard questions about PLA operational reach and endurance can be answered.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1954/thumbnail.jp

    Digital Identity Platforms: A Data Justice Perspective

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    Digital identity platforms, designed to enable secure and unique authentication of users, are widely depicted as a means to strengthen public service systems. Yet, this vision is questioned by studies illuminating how digital authentication results in exclusions, data violations and other forms of harm generated on users. This paper contributes a vision of digital identity inspired by the concept of data justice, which views data in terms of the fairness with which users are seen, represented and treated. Drawing on a data justice framework, we study a dataset of web sources (2021-2022) in terms of the legal, informational and design-related forms of injustice stemming from digital identification. By doing so we contribute to the emerging literature on digital identity, offering a conceptual lens to understand and ultimately combat the injustice generated through it

    Barriers to Data Sharing among Private Sector Organizations

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    In today’s digital world, sharing data among private sector organizations to realm mutual benefits, such as innovation and value co-creation, is considered a promising yet barely explored and realized approach. Although private sector organizations are pursuing data sharing, successful real-world examples are sparse due to a multitude of barriers. However, knowledge on barriers to data sharing among private sector organizations is scarcely existent in scientific literature. Therefore, we apply an exploratory research approach by triangulating insights from fourteen expert interviews and a systematic literature review to identify barriers which we group along five distinct perspectives. By exploring the multi-faceted barriers to data sharing among private sector organizations, our work contributes to a better understanding of data sharing in this field and lays the foundation for future studies. For practitioners, we identify key challenges to successful data sharing among private sector organizations and, hence call for additional endeavors in data sharing

    Explaining the extent of the EU’s implementation of UNmandated conflict management efforts: comparing the cases of Libya and Mali

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    In conflict management, the United Nations possesses a central role, but it relies on states and regional organizations to fulfil its mandates. One of such regional organizations, which partakes in UN-mandated conflict management efforts, is the European Union. Although declaring support for the UN through the promotion of effective multilateralism, the extent of the EU’s implementation of UN-mandated efforts varies. Against this background, this study seeks to find out, what explains this variation. More specifically, it explores how two factors - coherence and leadership of member states – affect the extent of the EU’s implementation of UN-mandated conflict management efforts. In order to identify, which of the two factors better explains varying extent of the EU’s implementation of UN-mandated conflict management efforts, a comparative study is constructed to empirically research the EU’s involvement in implementing UN-mandated conflict management efforts in the Mali War from 2012 onwards and the Second Libyan Civil War between 2014 and 2020. Document analysis is used to determine the relevant UN mandates and the subsequent extent of the EU’s implementation of UN-mandated conflict management efforts, meanwhile a combination of qualitative content analysis of speeches and statements together with document analysis is used to determine the leadership and coherence of EU member states. Whereas in the case of Mali, the EU implemented UN-mandated conflict management efforts to a complete extent, the extent of the EU’s implementation of such efforts was partial in the case of Libya. Identifying the presence of coherence and leadership of member states in both cases, the study concludes that although the coherence of member states does explain a varying extent of the EU’s implementation of UN-mandated conflict management efforts, leadership of member states does not, at least not by itself. The results of this thesis shine light on why the EU’s extent of implementation of UN-mandated conflict management efforts can vary, in addition to indicating problematic areas for decision-makers in the EU who strive for the EU being a promotor of effective multilateralism on the global stage

    Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework - Application of Data Science in Inclusive Education

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    Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Data Science and Advanced Analytics, specialization in Data ScienceBeing a disabled student the author faced higher education with a handicap which as experience studying during COVID 19 confinement periods matched the findings in recent research about the importance of digital accessibility through more e-learning intensive academic experiences. Narrative and systematic literature reviews enabled providing context in World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, legal and standards framework and information technology and communication state-of-the art. Assessing Portuguese higher education institutions’ web sites alerted to the fact that only outlying institutions implemented near perfect, accessibility-wise, websites. Therefore a gap was identified in how accessible the Portuguese higher education websites are, the needs of all students, including those with disabilities, and even the accessibility minimum legal requirements for digital products and the services provided by public or publicly funded organizations. Having identified a problem in society and exploring the scientific base of knowledge for context and state of the art was a first stage in the Design Science Research methodology, to which followed development and validation cycles of an Inclusive Intelligent Learning Management System Framework. The framework blends various Data Science study fields contributions with accessibility guidelines compliant interface design and content upload accessibility compliance assessment. Validation was provided by a focus group whose inputs were considered for the version presented in this dissertation. Not being the purpose of the research to deliver a complete implementation of the framework and lacking consistent data to put all the modules interacting with each other, the most relevant modules were tested with open data as proof of concept. The rigor cycle of DSR started with the inclusion of the previous thesis on Atlñntica University Institute Scientific Repository and is to be completed with the publication of this thesis and the already started PhD’s findings in relevant journals and conferences
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