Epidemiological and nutrition transition in developing countries: impact on human health and development

Whereas common infectious and parasitic diseases such as malaria and the HIV/AIDS pandemic remain major unresolved health problems in many developing countries, emerging non-communicable diseases relating to diet and lifestyle have been increasing over the last two decades, thus creating a double burden of disease and impacting negatively on already over-stretched health services in these countries. Prevalence rates for type 2 diabetes mellitus and CVD in sub-Saharan Africa have seen a 10-fold increase in the last 20 years. In the Arab Gulf current prevalence rates are between 25 and 35% for the adult population, whilst evidence of the metabolic syndrome is emerging in children and adolescents. The present review focuses on the concept of the epidemiological and nutritional transition. It looks at historical trends in socio-economic status and lifestyle and trends in nutrition-related non-communicable diseases over the last two decades, particularly in developing countries with rising income levels, as well as the other extreme of poverty, chronic hunger and coping strategies and metabolic adaptations in fetal life that predispose to non-communicable disease risk in later life. The role of preventable environmental risk factors for obesity and the metabolic syndrome in developing countries is emphasized and also these challenges are related to meeting the millennium development goals. The possible implications of these changing trends for human and economic development in poorly-resourced healthcare settings and the implications for nutrition training are also discussed

Corporate Governance and Islamic Social Responsibility Disclosure In Kuwaiti Shariah Compliant Financial Institutions

This study examines the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and the extent of Islamic social responsibility disclosure in Kuwait. The annual reports of 40 Shariah-compliant financial institutions listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange in 2010 are examined. Four major corporate governance characteristics are investigated: 1) the existence of a Shariah supervisory board; 2) the number of board members; 3) the proportion of non-executive directors to the total number of directors on the board; and 4) role duality. The extent of Islamic social responsibility disclosure is measured using a self-constructed index. The index consists of 46 Islamic information items. Multivariate regression analyses are used to examine the relationships between these characteristics and the level of Islamic social responsibility disclosure. The results show that Shariah-compliant financial institutions disclosed 18% on average of the possible voluntary disclosure items. The findings report that Islamic social responsibility disclosure increases with the presence of a Shariah supervisory board, but decreases with role duality. Other corporate governance characteristics were found not to be significant in the study

Predictors of failed attendances in a multi-specialty outpatient centre using electronic databases.

BACKGROUND: Failure to keep outpatient medical appointments results in inefficiencies and costs. The objective of this study is to show the factors in an existing electronic database that affect failed appointments and to develop a predictive probability model to increase the effectiveness of interventions. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on outpatient clinic attendances at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore from 2000 to 2004. 22864 patients were randomly sampled for analysis. The outcome measure was failed outpatient appointments according to each patient's latest appointment. RESULTS: Failures comprised of 21% of all appointments and 39% when using the patients' latest appointment. Using odds ratios from the mutliple logistic regression analysis, age group (0.75 to 0.84 for groups above 40 years compared to below 20 years), race (1.48 for Malays, 1.61 for Indians compared to Chinese), days from scheduling to appointment (2.38 for more than 21 days compared to less than 7 days), previous failed appointments (1.79 for more than 60% failures and 4.38 for no previous appointments, compared with less than 20% failures), provision of cell phone number (0.10 for providing numbers compared to otherwise) and distance from hospital (1.14 for more than 14 km compared to less than 6 km) were significantly associated with failed appointments. The predicted probability model's diagnostic accuracy to predict failures is more than 80%. CONCLUSION: A few key variables have shown to adequately account for and predict failed appointments using existing electronic databases. These can be used to develop integrative technological solutions in the outpatient clinic

Identification of capacity development indicators for faculty development programs: A nominal group technique study.

BackgroundAlthough there have been many research studies of the effectiveness of faculty development in health profession education, the contribution of these programs to organizational development through capacity development has not been studied. Further understanding of capacity development requires appropriate indicators and no previous indicators for faculty development of health profession educators were identified. The aim of the study was to identify indicators of capacity development in the context of faculty development programs at Tehran University of medical sciences (TUMS).MethodsA nominal group technique session was conducted with key informants from faculty development program providers to generate and prioritize a list of capacity development indicators.ResultsA list of 26 indicators was generated and five categories were identified: Development and innovation in teaching and learning process, Development and innovation in communication and collaboration at different levels, Development and sustaining faculty development programs, Development of educational leadership and management, Development in scholarship.ConclusionsCapacity development for faculty development interventions of health profession educators is a process of engagement within a wider system, including individual and collective action, and involves the socialization of the teachers into suitable roles through professional identity development and participation within the wider system

IoT Traffic Management and Integration in the QoS Supported Network

This paper proposes: (i) a traffic flow management policy, which allocates and organises Machine Type Communication (MTC) traffic flows network resources sharing within Evolved Packet System (EPS), (ii) an access element as a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) gateway for providing an overlaying access channel between the Machine Type Devices (MTDs) and EPS and (iii) it addresses the effect and interaction in the heterogeneity of applications, services and terminal devices and the related Quality of Service (QoS) issues among them. This work overcomes the problems of network resource starvation by preventing deterioration of network performance. The scheme is validated through simulation, which indicates the proposed traffic flow management policy outperforms the current traffic management policy. Specifically, simulation results show that the proposed model achieves an enhancement in QoS performance for the MTC traffic flows, including a decrease of 99.45% in Packet Loss Ratio (PLR), a decrease of 99.89% in packet End To End (E2E) delay, a decrease of 99.21% in Packet Delay Variation (PDV). Furthermore, it retains the perceived Quality of Experience (QoE) of the real time application users within high satisfaction levels, such as the VoLTE service possessing a Mean Opinion Score (MOS) of 4.349 and enhancing the QoS of a video conference service within the standardised values of a 3GPP body, with a decrease of 85.28% in PLR, a decrease of 85% in packet E2E delay and a decrease of 88.5% in PDV

Maternal hypoxia decreases capillary supply and increases metabolic inefficiency leading to divergence in myocardial oxygen supply and demand

Maternal hypoxia is associated with a decrease in left ventricular capillary density while cardiac performance is preserved, implying a mismatch between metabolism and diffusive exchange. We hypothesised this requires a switch in substrate metabolism to maximise efficiency of ATP production from limited oxygen availability. Rat pups from pregnant females exposed to hypoxia (FIO2=0.12) at days 10-20 of pregnancy were grown to adulthood and working hearts perfused ex vivo. 14 C-labelled glucose and 3 H-palmitate were provided as substrates and metabolism quantified from recovery of 14CO2 and 3 H2O, respectively. Hearts of male offspring subjected to Maternal Hypoxia showed a 20% decrease in cardiac output (P<0.05), despite recording a 2-fold increase in glucose oxidation (P<0.01) and 2.5-fold increase (P<0.01) in palmitate oxidation. Addition of insulin to Maternal Hypoxic hearts, further increased glucose oxidation (P<0.01) and suppressed palmitate oxidation (P<0.05), suggesting preservation in insulin signalling in the heart. In vitro enzyme activity measurements showed that Maternal Hypoxia increased both total and the active component of cardiac pyruvate dehydrogenase (both P<0.01), although pyruvate dehydrogenase sensitivity to insulin was lost (NS), while citrate synthase activity declined by 30% (P<0.001) and acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity was unchanged by Maternal Hypoxia, indicating realignment of the metabolic machinery to optimise oxygen utilisation. Capillary density was quantified and oxygen diffusion characteristics examined, with calculated capillary domain area increased by 30% (P<0.001). Calculated metabolic efficiency decreased 4-fold (P<0.01) for Maternal Hypoxia hearts. Paradoxically, the decline in citrate synthase activity and increased metabolism suggest that the scope of individual mitochondria had declined, rendering the myocardium potentially more sensitive to metabolic stress. However, decreasing citrate synthase may be essential to preserve local PO2, minimising regions of hypoxia and hence maximising the area of myocardium able to preserve cardiac output following maternal hypoxia

Corporate reporting and disclosures in the emerging capital market of Kuwait:the perceptions of users and preparers

The objective of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of users and preparers regarding financial disclosure practices in annual reports of Kuwaiti listed firms. To measure participants' views, a questionnaire survey was distributed in Kuwait between October and December 2012, to preparers (financial managers) and users (financial analysts) within Kuwaiti listed companies. The study compares between the perceptions of financial managers and financial analysts regarding disclosing information in corporate annual reports as well as the main obstacles facing the disclosure process and what the problems restricting the use of companies' annual reports. The study also seeks to investigate whether there is a perceived need for improving the usefulness of Kuwaiti companies' annual reports for decision-making. The results, based on 137 responses, indicate that accounting practices in Kuwaiti firms are firmly rooted in a decision-usefulness tradition with management and the board of directors viewed as the key audience for reporting information. Indeed, the annual reports of Kuwaiti listed companies are perceived as the most important sources of information. On the whole both users and preparers shared similar concerns regarding the volume of information contained within annual reports; however, their views differed in terms of identifying potential solutions. The results of the study are likely to have implications for decision makers, the academic community and accounting standard setters. 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature

SPARC 2017 retrospect & prospects : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2017 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also the 50th anniversary of Salford as a University, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 130 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the research strengths of their works, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to exploit this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas to your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research inevitably requires interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised by all major research funders. Therefore engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers

Forecasting Evaporation Trends Amid Climate Change for Sustainable Water Management in Semi-Arid Regions

Evapotranspiration plays a vital role in the design of irrigation systems, water resource management, and hydrological modeling, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. This study focuses on projecting evaporation rates using three machine learning models: a Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), and Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), in combination with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction. Meteorological data from 1980 to 2022, including the minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall, and solar radiation, were used to train and test the models. Projections were made for Kirkuk Governorate by downscaling five global climate models under two climate scenarios: SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5. These scenarios were used to predict future evaporation rates at a rainwater harvesting site for four future periods (P1, P2, P3, and P4) and compare them to the historical reference period (RP). The performance of the models was evaluated using three statistical metrics: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), and the regression coefficient (R2). Among the models, the MLP demonstrated superior predictive accuracy, with values of MAE = 0.02 mm, RMSE = 0.10 mm, and R2 = 0.95. The SVM model showed a slightly lower performance, with MAE = 0.21 mm, RMSE = 0.13 mm, and R2 = 0.92. The GPR model’s performance was comparable, yielding MAE = 0.22 mm, RMSE = 0.37 mm, and R2 = 0.91. The historical reference period (RP) showed an average evaporation rate of 1370.9 mm per year. Under the SSP2-4.5 scenario, evaporation is projected to increase by 57.2%, while under SSP5-8.5, the increase is projected to be 85.9%. Under the SSP2-4.5 scenario, the evaporation rate for period P1 (2031–2050) showed a slight increase of 1.61%, while for periods P2 (2051–2070) and P3 (2071–2090), the increases were smaller, at 1.89% and 1.93%, respectively. The highest increase occurred in P4 (2091–2100), with a rate of 2.68%, compared to an observed value increase of 1.33%. These findings suggest that climate change will significantly elevate evaporation rates in the region, emphasizing the need for adaptive water resource management strategies

Associative effects of activated carbon biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on wheat for reducing nickel food chain bioavailability

Heavy metal stress and less nutrient availability are some of the major concerns in agriculture. Both abiotic stresses have potential to decrease the crops productivity. On the other hand, organic fertilizers i.e., activated carbon biochar (ACB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) increase nutritional and heavy metal like Nickel (Ni) stress tolerance and provide immunity to plants for their survival in unfavorable environments. Previous studies have only looked at single applications of either ACB or AMF thus far. There is limited evidence of their synergistic effects, especially in plants growing in soil contaminated with nickel (Ni). To cover the knowledge gap of combined use of AMF inoculation (Glomus intraradices) and/or wheat straw biochar amendments on wheat growth, antioxidant activities and osmolytes concentration, present study is conducted. The use of either the AMF inoculant or the ACB alone resulted in improved wheat growth and decreased Ni uptake. Furthermore, sole AMF or ACB also reduced Ni stress effectively, allowing wheat to grow faster and reducing soil Ni transfer into plant tissue. In comparison to a control, adding ACB with AMF inoculant considerably increased fungal populations. The most significant increase in wheat growth and decrease in tissue Ni contents came from amending soil with AMF inoculant and biochar. Inducing soil alkalinization and causing Ni immobilization, as well as decreasing Ni phyto-availability, the combination treatment had a synergistic impact. These findings imply that AMF inoculation in ACB treatment could be used not only for wheat production but also for Ni-contaminated soil phyto-stabilization. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe