Use of scenario evaluation in preparation for deployment of a collaborative system for knowledge transfer - the case of KiMERA

This paper presented an approach for the evaluation of a collaborative system, after the completion of system development and software testing but before its deployment. Scenario and collaborative episodes were designed and data collected from users role-playing. This was found to be a useful step in refining the user training, in setting the right level of user expectation when the system started to roll-out to real users and in providing feedback to the development team

Risk factors for malaria infection and transmission in Burkina Faso, an area of high, persistent malaria transmission and high insecticide resistance

Malaria remains a public health problem despite the large decline in infection and disease between 2000 and 2015, due largely to the massive deployment of insecticide-treated nets (ITN). Recent years have been marked, however, by a stagnation in progress in high burden countries. In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that the key targets of WHO’s global malaria strategy have been missed. The 11 high burden high impact countries (10 in sub-Saharan Africa including Burkina Faso, plus India) accounted for approximately 70% or more of the world’s malaria case burden and 71% of global estimated deaths from malaria in 2020. About 253 million ITNs have been distributed in malaria endemic countries in 2019 with an increase of 56 million ITNs compared with 2018. Approximatively 84% of these ITNs were delivered to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In parallel, the WHO global malaria 2020 report on insecticide resistance on malaria vectors highlights resistance to the four common insecticide classes (pyrethroids, organochlorines, carbamates, organophosphates) in 74 out the of the 82 endemic countries. The resistance to pyrethroids, the only insecticide class currently used in ITNs continues to be widespread in all major malaria vectors across malaria endemic countries. Burkina Faso is one of the few countries not to have shown an association between ITN ownership and a reduction in child mortality. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) and Intermittent Preventive Treatment of Malaria in pregnant women using sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) was introduced in 2006, ITNs have been distributed free of charge since 2010 every three years and seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) in children under five years has been scaled up across the country in 2016. Following the mass distribution of more than 30 million ITNs in 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019, more than 97% of households owned at least one ITN, although estimates of the proportion of children sleeping under an ITN range from 70% in the peak transmission season. Despite the high coverage, cases of malaria remain high with 380 cases per 1000 in 2015, 536 cases per 1000 in 2017 and 528 cases per 1000 in 2018. Reasons for the lack of effectiveness of ITNs may include the high levels of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors, incomplete coverage of ITNs, poor condition of the nets and whether people use them correctly. Here I explored the risk factors for malaria in Burkina Faso, mainly in children and pregnant women and for indoor densities of malaria mosquitoes. This thesis hypothesised that malaria in Burkina Faso was less common among children and pregnant women living in modern housing and with high socio-economic status. Two epidemiological study models (cohort study and cross-sectional survey) were implemented to help determine major risk factors for Plasmodium falciparum infection in an area of persistent and intense malaria transmission in rural Burkina Faso, with high ITN coverage and high levels of insecticide resistance, throughout different population groups (children, pregnant women and all age population). Incidence of P. falciparum infection remains overwhelmingly high in the study area with school-age children at greatest risk. Caregivers with high socio-economic status (odds ratio, OR =1.05, 95% CI 1.00 - 1.11, p=0.04), having travelled out of the study area (OR=1.52, 95% CI 1.45 - 1.52, p<0.001), or being literate (OR=1.71, 95% CI 1.26 - 2.32, p=0.001), were at increased risk. Conversely, sleeping in a metal-roofed house (OR=0.6, 95% CI 0.4 - 1.0, p=0.03) and having an electricity supply in the child’s bedroom (OR=0.4, 95% CI 0.3 - 0.7, p=0.001), reduced the risk of house entry by Anopheles gambiae, the dominant malaria vectors in the study area. During pregnancy there was a reduced risk of P. falciparum infection associated with the use of ITNs (Odds ratio, OR=0.31, 95% CI 0.12–0.79, p=0.02), while this association was not found in the general population or among children. In pregnant women, increasing the dose of IPTp-SP, was associated with the reducing the odds of infection by 40% (OR=0.59, 95% CI 0.43–0.81, p<0.001). The study findings suggest that malaria control in Burkina Faso and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa experiencing persistently high malaria transmission need additional interventions to contribute to accelerate the disease burden reduce and to achieve the goals of WHO global strategies by 2030. My findings highlight the potential of improved housing to reduce malaria transmission as further opportunities for improving malaria control.

Visual Place Recognition in Changing Environments Utilising Sequence-Based Filtering and Extremely JPEG Compressed Images

Visual Place Recognition (VPR), part of Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM), is an essential task for the localisation process, where each robotic platform is required to successfully navigate through its environment using visual information gathered from the on-board camera. Despite the recent efforts of the research community, VPR remains an improving process. To this end, a large number of deep-learning-based and handcrafted VPR techniques (also referred as learnt and non-learnt VPR techniques) have been proposed to overcome the challenges in this field, such as viewpoint, illumination and seasonal variations. While Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based VPR techniques have significant computational requirements that may restrict their applicability on resource-constrained platforms, handcrafted VPR techniques struggle with appearance changes. In this thesis, two mainly unexplored avenues of research are investigated, namely sequence-based filtering and JPEG compression. To overcome the previously mentioned challenges, this thesis proposes a handcrafted VPR technique based on HOG descriptors, paired with an adaptive sequence-based filtering schema to perform VPR in scenarios where the appearance of the environment drastically changes upon different traversals. The technique entitled ConvSequential-SLAM is capable of achieving comparable place matching performance with state-of-the-art VPR techniques at reduced computational costs. The approach utilised for matching sequences of images in the above technique has been employed to investigate the improvement in VPR performance and the computational effort required to execute VPR when utilising a sequence-based filtering approach. As CNNs are computationally demanding, this thesis shows that VPR can be performed more efficiently using lightweight techniques. Furthermore, this thesis also investigates the effects of JPEG compression for VPR applications, where important reductions in both transmission and storage requirements can be achieved. As the VPR performance is drastically reduced, especially for high compression ratios, this thesis shows how a fine-tuned CNN can achieve more consistent VPR performance on highly JPEG compressed data (i.e. above 90% JPEG compression). Sequence-based filtering is introduced to overcome the performance loss due to JPEG compression. This thesis shows that the size of a JPEG compressed image is often smaller than the size of the image descriptor, and therefore should be transferred instead. Furthermore, our experiments also show that the amount of data required for transfer is reduced with an increase in JPEG compression, even when requiring an increased number of images in a sequence. This thesis also analyses the effects of image resolution on the performance of handcrafted techniques, to enable efficient deployment of VPR solutions on commercial products. The analysis performed in this thesis confirms that local feature descriptors are unable to operate on low-resolution images, as no keypoints (salient information) are detected. Moreover, this thesis also shows that the time required to perform VPR is reduced with a decrease in image resolution

WOMEN-LED TSETSE CONTROL: A PILOT STUDY IN NORTHWEST UGANDA

ABSTRACT Women-led tsetse control: a pilot study in North West Uganda Vanja Kovačič INTRODUCTION Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a disease caused by infection with trypanosomes and transmitted by tsetse flies, which continues to threaten thousands of people in Africa. Tiny targets –small pieces of cloth impregnated with insecticide– are a new, cheap, and effective entomological tool to prevent transmission. The most sustainable and effective way to implement these targets remains uncertain, but their simplicity makes them an excellent candidate for community led schemes. The aim of this research was to design, implement, and evaluate a women-led tsetse control intervention using tiny targets in an area endemic to HAT. METHODS The research was conducted in North West Uganda and organized in three distinct phases: 1) The baseline phase used in-depth interviews, GPS human tracking, seasonal calendars and participatory mapping to explore the factors influencing community participation; 2) The intervention and evaluation phase piloted a women-led tsetse control operation in three villages and evaluated its impact using action research; 3) The stakeholders’ reflections phase explored the community and decision-makers’ perceptions of community involvement in future HAT control interventions, through community role play and in-depth interviews with decision-makers. RESULTS During the baseline phase, the community did not express negative perceptions towards HAT control programmes, although they recalled past experiences with different programmes imposed upon them. Both men and women perceived women to be at greater risk of tsetse bites then men because of their daily activities in close proximity to rivers, and this was an important facilitator for their involvement. However, the GPS human tracking study suggested that the actual risk was similar among men and women. During the six month pilot intervention, women were highly motivated, and their ownership of the programme and sense of empowerment increased. Participants perceived the intervention as feasible. The evaluation demonstrated that more tiny targets were functional at six months post deployment in the pilot villages than in an expert-led programme in an adjacent area, due to community maintenance of the targets. The pilot community-led intervention was also more cost-effective. Through role-play in the stakeholders’ reflection phase, women demonstrated with confidence their ability to define priorities, good negotiation skills, and critical insights into decision-making. During in-depth interviews, decision- makers acknowledged that the community has an important role in HAT elimination, but that they lacked knowledge and skills in community based approaches. Women are not well represented in HAT control policy and planning, and the perception of tsetse control as a male domain was an additional barrier to women-participation approaches. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that a community-based tsetse control programme organized and led by women was feasible and cost-effective. The high-level of engagement and motivation of these women and their effective management of the tiny targets provide evidence that community-based approaches may be a sustainable option for tsetse control. However, this will need widespread engagement of policy and programme staff and recognition that communities are equal partners in HAT elimination

Atas do XVII Simpósio Internacional de Informática Educativa

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Science and Innovations for Food Systems Transformation

This Open Access book compiles the findings of the Scientific Group of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and its research partners. The Scientific Group was an independent group of 28 food systems scientists from all over the world with a mandate from the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The chapters provide science- and research-based, state-of-the-art, solution-oriented knowledge and evidence to inform the transformation of contemporary food systems in order to achieve more sustainable, equitable and resilient systems

Secondary cities as catalysts for nutritious diets in low- and middle-income countries

The world is facing a malnutrition crisis in the midst of rising rates of urbanization; more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, a number that is expected to reach two-thirds by 2050, consuming 80% of the world's food. Instead of the development of existing cities into 'mega-cities, ' urbanization is creating a patchwork of smaller urban areas. In 2018, close to half of the world's urban residents lived in settlements or towns with less than 500, 000 inhabitants. These settlements are classified as secondary cities and are, in terms of population, the fastest growing urban areas. Poor diets among city inhabitants are the consequence of a combination of forces. These include changes in types of occupation, particularly for women; food-environment factors; shifts in norms and attitudes regarding food; globalization of food supply chains; lack of infrastructure; post-harvest food loss and waste, etc. Secondary cities offer entry points for food system transformation. Secondary cities are characterized by strong urban-rural linkages and the opportunity for localized food production and consumption. These cities could also play a key role in enhancing resilience to food security shocks. This chapter discusses the challenge of the growing triple burden of malnutrition in urban contexts and argues for the important role of secondary cities in transforming urban food systems. Through three case studies of secondary cities in LMICs, these cities are shown as emerging players in nutrition-centered food system interventions. © The Author(s) 2023

Perceptions of the rules of business behaviour in the competitive banking environment in Uganda

Business rules shape the behaviour of a business and guide the behaviour of employees when conducting business. Therefore, business rules explain what is allowed and not allowed. It is argued that all organisations have business rules and engage in some form of relationship whether through competition or cooperation with other companies. In today’s business environment, organisations are embedded in relationships with other actors in order to gain access to resources that are needed. Therefore, each organisation’s business rules define their strategies and actions. The type of business rule behaviour which is applied by organisations encourages them to grow by taking market share from rivals or creating new markets. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the rules of business behaviour on perceptions of the competitive banking environment in Uganda and its potential impact on certain outcomes. In this study, a quantitative research approach was adopted, as the study sought to investigate the relationships between variables. This study collected data through the use of a structured self-administered survey questionnaire which was distributed to 233 branches of banks in Uganda, totaling 700 bank employees. The survey yielded 529 usable questionnaires which were analyzed, using several statistical analysis techniques. A hypothetical model and measuring instrument of perceptions of the rules of business behaviour in the competitive banking environment within Uganda was developed. Six null-hypotheses were subjected to statistical analysis. The influence of three independent variables, namely, confrontational business behaviour, co-operational business behaviour and typologies of competition on the intermediate variable, perceptions of the competitive banking environment in Uganda were tested. The impact of these variables on three independent outcome variables, namely, organisational performance and customer loyalty and retention were also tested The empirical findings revealed that the rules of business behaviour have a significant relationship with perceptions of the competitive banking environment in Uganda. These results showed that confrontational behaviour as a rule of business behaviour can be classified as being direct or indirect. The study further revealed that banks should consider competitors as co-partners and not only as aggressors, indicating that co-operational business behaviour is statistically significantly related to perceptions of the competitive business environment in Uganda. The three typologies of competition, namely, defy attack, defense and debase attack are also positively related to perceptions of the competitive business environment in Uganda. The empirical results of the study also indicated that perceptions of the competitive banking environment have a positive relationship with outcomes such as organisational performance, customer retention and customer loyalty. This study contributed to the literature and body of knowledge regarding the impact of rules of business behaviour in the competitive banking environment in Uganda. This study could also assist banks, employees and customers alike to understand the different rules of business behaviour that exist and what strategies banks can employ to improve their position in the market. This study could also be replicated by other banks in other developing countries so as to ensure successful competition and the cooperation of banks as they engage in their activities in the banking industry