Impacts of congregation-based HIV/AIDS programmes In Lusaka, Zambia: how abstinence and marital fidelity efforts function in overall strategies addressing HIV/AIDS

The 2013-2014 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) reported HIV prevalence rate among adults aged 15-49 at 13.3%, ranking Zambia 7th among countries experiencing devastating effects of a mature and generalised epidemic. This report is particularly noted as the first to measure HIV incidence1. Chanda Kapata2 et al. posting results from Zambia’s largest population-based mobile testing survey (2013–2014) placed the HIV prevalence rate generally lower. In 2002, the National AIDS Council (NAC) was established to lead a multisectoral national response to stem the tide. Government Agencies and the United Nations led the responses. In 1992, The World Health Organisation (WHO) observed that abstinence and marital fidelity might constitute strategies capable of completely eliminating the risk of infection from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Yet funding for applicable initiatives has seldom been prioritised in this respect. On one hand, from the onset of global interventions, condoms were seen primarily as most potent towards reducing the risk of infection. On the other hand, in due course, the implementation of Abstinence and Being Faithful (AB) initiatives by Churches among others, has since been seen as holding massive comparative advantage in facilitating sustainable interventions for prevention and mitigation of AIDS impact. However, church-congregation engagement in AIDS work, for a while, remained under-researched, and applicable interventions were often undocumented and unmeasured in relation to impact. This study investigated (1) how interventions affect impacts in congregation-based HIV/AIDS programmes, and (2) how abstinence and marital fidelity function within the larger picture of overall strategies to combat AIDS. It examined the community work of the Circle of Hope Family Care Centre, a congregation-based HIV/AIDS support group initiative undertaken by the Northmead Assembly of God Church in Lusaka, Zambia. The main research question was: 1) Is a person’s sexual behaviour influenced by their attitude and behaviour towards God? Two subsidiary questions were: i) what are the factors that affect a person’s sexual lifestyle? ii) Does attendance at the church’s HIV/AIDS programmes cause a change of behaviour in a person’s sexual relationships? A triangulated methodology required the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. The experimental design included a purposively selected intervention group and a control group. Both groups were studied by employing baseline first, and follow-up measures after three months. Quantitative data analysis was carried out in two stages comprising first, cross tabulations to examine the relationship between safer sexual behaviour and socio-economic variables. For the statistical analysis, chi-square tests of independence were conducted at the bivariate level, and the differences were determined at P < 0.01 and P < 0.05 significant level. Next, major predictors were carried out with the help of logistic regression analysis. The results of the logistic regression models were converted into odds ratios, which represented the effect of a one-unit change in the explanatory variable on the indicator of experiencing safer sexual practices and abstaining from sex. Qualitative data were analysed using Atals.ti software to produce the attendant themes and sub-themes. The results of the logistic regression analysis show that those who participated in the interventions were 4.1 times more likely to report having adopted new behaviour or modified old behaviour, specifically to live positively, than those who did not attend the interventions. Similarly, participants in the faith-based interventions were 2.3 times more likely than those who did not take part to report having adopted safer sexual practices. Further analysis revealed that those participants were more likely to report abstinence from sex than those who did not attend. The conclusion is that church congregations have immense comparative advantage to influence sexual behaviour through increasing captive audiences constituting the churches’ presence in the community. Additionally, their morally based interventions such as abstinence and marital fidelity show significant impact on sexual behaviour change and have potential to turn the tide of HIV/AIDS, as the tested models are replicable, scalable and sustainable

Time domain simulations of dynamic river networks

The problem of simulating a river network is considered. A river network is considered to comprise of rivers, dams/lakes as well as weirs. We suggest a numerical approach with specific features that enable the correct representation of these assets. For each river the flow of water is described by the shallow water equations which is a system of hyperbolic partial differential equations and at the junctions of the rivers, suitable coupling conditions, viewed as interior boundary conditions are used to couple the dynamics. A different model for the dams is also presented. Numerical test cases are presented which show that the model is able to reproduce the expected dynamics of the system. Other aspects of the modelling such as rainfall, run-off, overflow/flooding, evaporation, absorption/seepage, bed-slopes, bed friction have not been incorporated in the model due to their specific nature

Estrategia de procesamiento y optimización de consultas en un gestor de bases de datos federadas

Based on BLOOM (BarceLona Object-Oriented Model), we propose to establish a global query processing strategy in the Federated Query Manager. First, the developing mechanism constructs a tree, which has nodes that initially represent explicit joins between federated classes and that are decomposed, into implicit joins between classes in the Component Schemas. Consequently, different heuristic techniques are performed in order to optimise the decomposition process, which generate one or more Execution Plans (EP). After that, the EP are analysed to get the optimum. The objective function of this strategy is to choose an execution plan with the least total resource usage and the best response time. Finally, the consolidation of partial results is carried out maintaining the federated result in the root node.Basado en el Proyecto BLOOM (BarceLona Object- Oriented Model), se propone establecer una estrategia de procesamiento de la consulta global dentro del Gestor de Consultas Federado. Primero, se construye un árbol cuyos nodos inicialmente representan joins explícitos entre clases federadas y los cuales son descompuestos en joins implícitos entre clases en los esquemas componentes. Posteriormente, diferentes técnicas heurísticas optimizan el proceso de descomposición, las cuales generan uno o mas Planes de Ejecución (PE). Después, éstos PE son analizados para obtener el optimo. La función objetiva de esta estrategia es encontrar un plan de ejecución con el menor uso de recursos y el mejor tiempo de respuesta. Finalmente, la consolidación de resultados parciales se lleva a cabo manteniendo la respuesta federada en el nodo raíz.Postprint (published version

Science Councils and Financing of Research, Development and Innovation in Africa

The African Union’s Agenda 2063, supported by the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024), advocates for economic development that leverages the knowledge-based economy and especially the potential of STI in upgrading industrial activities. It is incontestable that research is fundamental for contextualized generation of new knowledge, adopting and adapting existing innovations and knowledge, and their application to Africa’s economic and human developmental needs. African countries’ innovation ecosystems that support the aforementioned goals, and the funding of research and STI through science granting councils (SGCs) and other actors, are critical. This chapter discusses three key issues on the funding of STI and research: first – how Africa has historically funded STI and the reasons behind adoption of certain approaches; second, the shortcomings of historical and current funding models; and third, innovative funding models from the continent and elsewhere that can be adopted to accelerate local research and innovation activities. Adopting a historical and contemporary approach, the chapter explores how private and public actors across Africa can play a significant role and imbue resilience in financing research and innovation. The chapter also explores various strategies and measures research organizations use to align their activities with national development policies

New approaches for funding research and innovation in Africa

It is undoubted that African countries’ individual and collective aspirations of economic development through research and innovation are in line with trends elsewhere. Like elsewhere in different parts of the world, African countries have been exploring different approaches, institutional reforms, models and mechanisms towards more efficient and effective funding and financing of research and innovation. This paper derives from a study which used a combination of primary and secondary data sources to inform current debates and reviews on the re-organization of research and innovation funding in Africa. The study specifically sought to identify and analyse “new approaches for funding research and innovation in Africa”. Study findings show that the importance of research and innovation is rated medium to high and is increasing in most of the African countries. This is demonstrated by practice, institutional and policy provisions for science, technology and innovation (STI), which have been instituted in the last few years. A number of dynamic new funding models have been developed, adopted and deployed in countries and sectors to deal with the realities of decreasing traditional funding for research and innovation sources. These models, encompassing partnerships, co-funding and multi-disciplinary approaches, seek to ensure context-driven, efficient and effective utilisation of scarce resources. Challenges ranging from insufficient political will to lack of implementation plans and uncoordinated approaches to STI were said to be stalling the expansion and sustainable deployment of the new funding models. This study advances a number of recommendations on how science granting councils and national governments can leverage their access to global intellectual resources and convening power to further strengthen availability of capabilities and funding for different stages of the research and innovation value chain

Improving PARMA Trailing

Taylor introduced a variable binding scheme for logic variables in his PARMA system, that uses cycles of bindings rather than the linear chains of bindings used in the standard WAM representation. Both the HAL and dProlog languages make use of the PARMA representation in their Herbrand constraint solvers. Unfortunately, PARMA's trailing scheme is considerably more expensive in both time and space consumption. The aim of this paper is to present several techniques that lower the cost. First, we introduce a trailing analysis for HAL using the classic PARMA trailing scheme that detects and eliminates unnecessary trailings. The analysis, whose accuracy comes from HAL's determinism and mode declarations, has been integrated in the HAL compiler and is shown to produce space improvements as well as speed improvements. Second, we explain how to modify the classic PARMA trailing scheme to halve its trailing cost. This technique is illustrated and evaluated both in the context of dProlog and HAL. Finally, we explain the modifications needed by the trailing analysis in order to be combined with our modified PARMA trailing scheme. Empirical evidence shows that the combination is more effective than any of the techniques when used in isolation. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures, 8 table

High dose multiple micronutrient supplementation improves villous morphology in environmental enteropathy without HIV enteropathy: results from a double-blind randomised placebo controlled trial in Zambian adults

PMCID: PMC3897937This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated

A knowledge-based expert system for scheduling of airborne astronomical observations

The Kuiper Airborne Observatory Scheduler (KAOS) is a knowledge-based expert system developed at NASA Ames Research Center to assist in route planning of a C-141 flying astronomical observatory. This program determines a sequence of flight legs that enables sequential observations of a set of heavenly bodies derived from a list of desirable objects. The possible flight legs are constrained by problems of observability, avoiding flyovers of warning and restricted military zones, and running out of fuel. A significant contribution of the KAOS program is that it couples computational capability with a reasoning system