Quantification of groundwater exploitation and assessment of water quality risk perception in the Dar Es Salaam Quaternary Aquifer, Tanzania

This study quantified groundwater exploitation and assessed water quality risk perception in the Dar es Salaam quaternary aquifer through a socio-economic survey. Annual total groundwater exploitation was estimated, using the daily per capita consumption of groundwater derived from the household survey. A logistic regression analysis was performed to ascertain the influence of sex, marital status, education level, employment, income, and cost of water on groundwater quality risk perception. It was revealed that most residents of Dar es Salaam use groundwater as a main source of water supply. The results of this study further showed that 78% consider groundwater as a reliable source. Averting strategies for insufficient quantity of groundwater consist of minimizing less necessary water uses, while for poor quality, buying bottled water and water treatment by boiling and using chemicals. The chance for water quality risk perception is 0.205 times greater for married than unmarried household heads, and it is 623 times higher for employed versus unemployed household heads. To get an overall view of the importance of groundwater for domestic needs in Dar es Salaam it is imperative to combine a time series data of groundwater and surface water exploitation

Diagnostic Reference Levels in Mammography in the Asian Context

Background: Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among the female population globally. Therefore, early detection is helpful for effective treatments and to reduce the mortality rate. Mammography is a radiological examination done with low-energy X-rays to detect abnormalities in breast tissue. This study aims to review the literature to evaluate the techniques, protocols, and conversion factors used to determine the diagnostic reference levels (DRLs); within the Asian continent using both phantom- and patient-based data. Methods: Related articles were systematically reviewed via Pub Med, Google scholar, and freehand search with the aid of relevant terms. Related abstracts in English were screened, and suitable articles were selected after reviewing the full-text. Four hundred and thirty abstracts were screened for relevance, and 12 articles were selected. Results: The study comprises four phantom-based and eight patient-based studies. The studies varied between the types of test subjects, conversion factors, breast compression thickness, and dose calculation protocols. This obstructs continuing the DRLs with the updates and comparisons among countries. Establishments of DRLs in Asian countries are less than the rest of the world. DRLs should be measured continuously, and should be updated based on other clinical parameters of the patients. Conclusion: DRLs in mammography were measured from time to time in different geographical locations in Asia by following various techniques. But when compared with the other regions of the world, there is less consideration for establishing DRLs in Asia. There should be standard protocols and updated conversion factors according to the advancements of the technology to ensure radiation protection with optimal absorbed dose with appropriate image quality

Exploring the Process of Fresh Produce Supply Within a Platform Ecosystem During City Lockdown Period

While the existing literature focusing on how organizations collaborate within ecosystems to overcome institutional logic conflicts and the information systems enabled inter-organizational cooperation, less is known on how information systems develop during crises and enable effective collaboration among stakeholders. Through an in-depth case study of Shenzhen Company H (pseudonym) platform ecosystem, we present an IT-enabled fresh produce supply process. Our findings reveal that this process unfolds across four dimensions - iterative IT tailoring, progressive system synergy, facilitative IT confluence, and user-attuned technological adaptation. Based on these dimensions, we propose an IT-enabled platform ecosystem orchestration mechanism in crisis situations. These mechanisms also offer practical implications not only for organizations\u27 strategies when facing crises but also for the enhancement of their daily operational competence

From rain to data: A review of the creation of monthly and daily station-based gridded precipitation datasets

Monthly and daily gridded precipitation datasets are one of the most demanded products in climatology and hydrology. These datasets describe the high spatial and temporal variability of precipitation as a continuous surface and for defined periods. However, due to the complex characteristics of precipitation, it is difficult to obtain accurate estimations. Thus, the creation of a gridded dataset from observations requires the comprehensive and precise application of quality control, reconstruction, and gridding procedures. Yet, despite multiple advances, most of the gridded datasets created and published since the mid-1990s to the present use a wide variety of techniques, methods, and outputs, which can completely change the final representativity of the data. It is, therefore, critical to provide general guidelines for the development of future and more robust gridded datasets based on the data characteristics, geographical factors, and advanced statistical techniques. We identified gaps and challenges for near-future perspectives and provide guidelines for implementing improved approaches based on the performance of 48 products. Finally, we concluded that, despite better spatial and temporal resolutions, data access, and data processing capabilities, observational coverage remains a challenge. Moreover, scientists should adopt tailored strategies to improve the representativity and uncertainty of the estimates. This article is categorized under: Science of Water > Hydrological Processes Science of Water > Water Extremes Science of Water > MethodsThis work was supported by the Government of Aragón through the “Program of research groups” (group H09_20R, “Climate, Water, Global Change, and Natural Systems”). Ernesto Tejedor is partially funded by the NSF-PIRE (OISE- 1743738

What approaches to social prescribing work, for whom, and in what circumstances? A protocol for a realist review

The use of non-drug, non-health-service interventions has been proposed as a cost-effective alternative to help those with long-term conditions manage their illness and improve their health and well-being. Interventions typically involve accessing activities run by the third sector or community agencies and may also be described as non-medical referral, community referral or social prescribing. To be effective, patients need to be “transferred” from the primary care setting into the community and to maintain their participation in activities. However, it is not currently known how and why these approaches enable which people under what circumstances to reach community services that may benefit their health and well-being.The use of non-drug, non-health-service interventions has been proposed as a cost-effective alternative to help those with long-term conditions manage their illness and improve their health and well-being. Interventions typically involve accessing activities run by the third sector or community agencies and may also be described as non-medical referral, community referral or social prescribing. To be effective, patients need to be “transferred” from the primary care setting into the community and to maintain their participation in activities. However, it is not currently known how and why these approaches enable which people under what circumstances to reach community services that may benefit their health and well-being

Healthcare providers' adherence to breast cancer guidelines in Europe : a systematic literature review

Clinical guidelines' (CGs) adherence supports high-quality care. However, healthcare providers do not always comply with CGs recommendations. This systematic literature review aims to assess the extent of healthcare providers' adherence to breast cancer CGs in Europe and to identify the factors that impact on healthcare providers' adherence. We searched for systematic reviews and quantitative or qualitative primary studies in MEDLINE and Embase up to May 2019. The eligibility assessment, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment were conducted by one author and cross-checked by a second author. We conducted a narrative synthesis attending to the modality of the healthcare process, methods to measure adherence, the scope of the CGs, and population characteristics. Out of 8137 references, we included 41 primary studies conducted in eight European countries. Most followed a retrospective cohort design (19/41; 46%) and were at low or moderate risk of bias. Adherence for overall breast cancer care process (from diagnosis to follow-up) ranged from 54 to 69%; for overall treatment process [including surgery, chemotherapy (CT), endocrine therapy (ET), and radiotherapy (RT)] the median adherence was 57.5% (interquartile range (IQR) 38.8-67.3%), while for systemic therapy (CT and ET) it was 76% (IQR 68-77%). The median adherence for the processes assessed individually was higher, ranging from 74% (IQR 10-80%), for the follow-up, to 90% (IQR 87-92.5%) for ET. Internal factors that potentially impact on healthcare providers' adherence were their perceptions, preferences, lack of knowledge, or intentional decisions. A substantial proportion of breast cancer patients are not receiving CGs-recommended care. Healthcare providers' adherence to breast cancer CGs in Europe has room for improvement in almost all care processes. CGs development and implementation processes should address the main factors that influence healthcare providers' adherence, especially patient-related ones. Registration:: PROSPERO (CRD42018092884)

Federated Access Management for Collaborative Environments

abstract: Access control has been historically recognized as an effective technique for ensuring that computer systems preserve important security properties. Recently, attribute-based access control (ABAC) has emerged as a new paradigm to provide access mediation by leveraging the concept of attributes: observable properties that become relevant under a certain security context and are exhibited by the entities normally involved in the mediation process, namely, end-users and protected resources. Also recently, independently-run organizations from the private and public sectors have recognized the benefits of engaging in multi-disciplinary research collaborations that involve sharing sensitive proprietary resources such as scientific data, networking capabilities and computation time and have recognized ABAC as the paradigm that suits their needs for restricting the way such resources are to be shared with each other. In such a setting, a robust yet flexible access mediation scheme is crucial to guarantee participants are granted access to such resources in a safe and secure manner. However, no consensus exists either in the literature with respect to a formal model that clearly defines the way the components depicted in ABAC should interact with each other, so that the rigorous study of security properties to be effectively pursued. This dissertation proposes an approach tailored to provide a well-defined and formal definition of ABAC, including a description on how attributes exhibited by different independent organizations are to be leveraged for mediating access to shared resources, by allowing for collaborating parties to engage in federations for the specification, discovery, evaluation and communication of attributes, policies, and access mediation decisions. In addition, a software assurance framework is introduced to support the correct construction of enforcement mechanisms implementing our approach by leveraging validation and verification techniques based on software assertions, namely, design by contract (DBC) and behavioral interface specification languages (BISL). Finally, this dissertation also proposes a distributed trust framework that allows for exchanging recommendations on the perceived reputations of members of our proposed federations, in such a way that the level of trust of previously-unknown participants can be properly assessed for the purposes of access mediation.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

Quality control for β-lactam susceptibility testing with a well-defined collection of Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains in Spain

Eighteen Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains, 16 of them with well-defined β-lactam re sistance mechanisms, were sent to 52 Spanish microbiology laboratories. Interpretative categories for 8 extended-spectrum β-lactams were collected. Participating laboratories used their own routine susceptibility testing procedures (88% automatic systems, 10% disk diffusion, and 2% agar dilution). Control results were established by two independent reference laboratories by applying the NCCLS microdilution method and interpretative criteria. Interpretative discrepancies were observed in 16% of the results (4.4% for cefepime, 3.0% for aztreonam, 2.8% for piperacillin-tazobactam, 1.7% for cefotaxime [CTX] and ceftazidime, 1.1% for ceftriaxone, 0.9% for meropenem, and 0.3% for imipenem). High consistency with reference values (30% major plus very major errors) was detected in K1-producing Klebsiella oxytoca, CTX-M-9-producing E. coli, and in OprD- P. aeruginosa strains. Extended- spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) -producing strains accounted for 86% of very major errors. Recognition of the ESBL phenotype was particularly low in Enterobacter cloacae strains (<35%), due to the lack of NCCLS-specific rules in this genus. A K1-producing K. oxytoca was misidentified by 10% of laboratories as an ESBL producer. The use of well-defined resistant strains is useful for improving proficiency in susceptibility testing in clinical laboratories

Automotive Stirling Engine Development Program

The background and history of the Stirling engine, the technology, materials, components, controls, and systems, and a technical assessment of automotive stirling engines are presented