Access to Affordable Highly Active Anti–Retroviral Therapy (HAART) for HIV/AIDS Patients. Where Do We Stand?

Abstract Background: The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic remains a major global public health challenge, with a total of 33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide. In 2008 alone, 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV. Unfortunately, the majority of patients with HIV infection worldwide live in resource poor areas were access to therapy is severely limited. Objective: This review summarizes the progress noted during the recent years concerning antiretroviral therapy scale-up in resource-limited settings and analyzes the economic, social and legal framework of services already provided. Results: The 2010 WHO report states that among 144 low- and middle-income countries reporting program data, eight had already achieved universal access to antiretroviral therapy at the end of 2009, providing treatment to at least 80% of patients in need. Furthermore, 15 countries had achieved the 80% target for coverage with antiretroviral prophylaxis to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. An increase of over 1.2 million people, including women and children receiving antiretroviral therapy was noted by the end of 2009. Health care facilities have expanded and as a result, the average number of people receiving therapy per health care facility has increased. Moreover, task shifting has been applied, with promising results. Conclusions: Although there is considerable room for improvement, HIV programs have had a positive impact on equal, affordable and early antiretroviral therapy provision to those who need it most. Special approaches though, remain necessary to address the particular circumstances and needs of those populations at greater risk for HIV infection. Rights-based national strategies must include special efforts to reach the poorest and those who are socially excluded. Interventions must be designed and implemented in ways that ensure equity in access for all

Mining Social Media for Perceptions and Trends on HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is an approach for preventing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which entails the administration of antiretroviral medication to high-risk seronegative persons. If taken correctly, PrEP can reduce HIV infection risk by more than 90%. The aim of this study was to identify and examine PrEP-related perceptions and trends discussed on Twitter. Using open-source technologies, text-mining and interactive visualisation techniques, a comprehensive data gathering and analytics Web-based platform was developed to facilitate the study objectives. Our results demonstrate that monitoring of PrEP-related discussions on Twitter can be detected over time and valuable insights can be obtained concerning issues of PrEP awareness, expressed opinions, perceived barriers and key discussion points on its adoption. The proposed platform could support public-health professionals and policy makers in PrEP monitoring, facilitating informed decision making and strategy planning for efficient HIV combination prevention

Lessons learned from the first European project on the integration of infectious diseases in testing services, data collection and country responses.

Despite the progress in effective treatments for HIV, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), these infections remain major public health concerns across Europe. Recurring challenges of late presentation and unprioritized prevention programmes need to be effectively addressed in order to control and prevent transmission and ensure that people are diagnosed early and rapidly enter the care system. The prevalence of co-infections is high due to the social context of key populations and the shared modes of transmission, varying with local epidemiology, which underlines the need to combine efforts throughout the continuum of care

Αλγόριθμοι για γνωστικά ασύρματα δίκτυα και νέφος γνωστικών ασύρματων δικτύων

This dissertation’s innovation is concentrated on the introduction and description of a reference network framework for Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services and Abstract Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services integration and deployment on all the OSI layers in a heterogeneous wireless network. The necessity of lower layers services and applications conceptualization within the Cognitive Radio Cycle is the main issue that this dissertation manifests whilst providing algorithms for responding to diverse issues within the Cognitive Radio Network and Cognitive Radio Network Cloud. Radio Spectrum is a public good and the recent years due to the vast increase of mobile users and mobile applications as well as the need for Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end user, a spectrum scarcity was a main issue in wireless networks leading to the introduction of a new key technology namely the Cognitive Radio for the underutilized licensed spectrum bands broadening the radio spectrum usage and management. The current challenges in Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) are storing of large amount of data, processing them in real time and the exchanging of nodes’ current status on-the-fly. These challenges are in contrast to the limited storage and processing ability (plus battery lifetime) of Cognitive Devices thus the need for additional capabilities arise. Cognitive Radio Network Cloud (CRNC) is an infra-structure consisting of mobile nodes and the cloud whose primary goal is to keep an up-to-date status of the spectrum availability in the network. Demanding tasks, e.g. signal intelligence, could be off-loaded to powerful nodes locally allowing the local network to be self-organized. By allowing self-organizing networks to be deployed locally, huge heterogeneous wireless networks such as 5G and 6G evolve, which can mitigate their dynamic spectrum access and control to meet the end users and wireless network performance requirements.Self-organizing Cognitive Radio Networks in an immense heterogeneous wireless network along with Dynamic Spectrum Access, Management and Control Mitigation on demand or not on demand to respond to network needs in real time and on the fly can be realized with high level abstraction and conceptualization of Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services and Abstract Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services integration and deployment on all the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layers, cross-platform and cross-network, cross-operator. Central coordination would be applicable for triggering local nomad network to be self-organized, as well for hand-off or for meeting QoE, radio network performance, institutional metrics. Network clustering on Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services/Applications and Abstract Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services/Applications Level may be feasible. Artificial Intelligence and other technologies will enable efficient distributed control. Radio Environment Maps are powerful technology to this direction. Off-loading to local powerful nodes increase network performance and QoE which are essential for 5G, 6G network for urban and rural radio environments. A new mathematic method of mathematic game unfolding is introduced i.e. a new mathematic method for generating games without coordination and a corresponding mathematic game model as an application of the proposed mathematic method to for the Cognitive Radio Network and Cognitive Radio Cloud Security was introduced. Other mathematic game reaching Nash Equilibriums also were introduced. Deterministic automata and Machine Learning were also introduced as well as other mathematic formulas applicable to the corresponding network protocols, mathematic models for steady-state- Lyapunov filtering algorithm for enhanced CRN-SDR signal processing and mathematic formulas for Non-Reciprocal Channels in Massive MIMO CRN were also introduced in this dissertation. Demanding tasks, e.g. signal intelligence, could be off-loaded to powerful nodes locally allowing the local network to be self-organized. By allowing self-organizing networks to be deployed locally, huge heterogeneous wireless networks such as 5G and 6G evolve, which can mitigate their dynamic spectrum access and control to meet the end users and wireless network performance requirements. A critical issue in CR Infrastructure-less network deployment on the cloud would be the Standard Interface Operability (SIO) for CR users to connect to the cloud or local powerful nodes. SIO would allow easy access and utilization of powerful wireless and mobile local nodes and infrastructure network front-end. This dissertation and research work presented in the following chapters participated in this effort or the international research community on wireless network by introducing Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services and Abstract Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services integration to achieve higher degree of conceptualization of Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services utilized in the upper stack layers of OSI and meet a common goal such as smart radio environment utilization locally or globally, QoE, higher wireless network performance. The technologies that may be employed are current technologies such as Virtual Machines and Network Function Virtualization, Network Chaining. The concept of Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services and their conceptualization to an abstract level covering the seven layers of the OSI stack and respond to edge requirements of the huge 5G, 6G heterogeneous networks. Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services integration and deployment on all the OSI layers and 5G and 6G huge and heterogeneous network would require high level of scheduling and interaction. High level of scheduling and interaction will trigger eventually adaptation “knobs” within the local and global system would necessiate high level of interaction on all OSI stack layers of Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services and Abstract Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services in this reference network framework for cross-operator, cross-network operability context generation, QoE, radio network demands, cross-operator, cross-border. This dissertation and the subsequent research work introduced a framework of this Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services and application and Abstract Cognitive Medium Access Control and SDR Services integration and deployment framework. In particular in this framework optimal algorithms have been introduced to implement protocols for solving diverse issues such as native Cognitive Medium Access Control, Software Defined Networking coordination, Sustainability, Broadcasting, Security, massive MIMO technology and imperfect CSI for reciprocal channels, Multiscale Decision Making with Machine Learning and Game Theory for Efficient Sensing Scheduling and Spectrum Sensing Control, Enhanced Signal Processing and Radio Environment Maps for the Cognitive Radio Network and Cognitive Radio Cloud. As huge heterogeneous next generation wireless networks is a necessity, proposing such high level design of low layer services and applications cross-layer, cross-network, cross-operator would make feasible 5G and 6G - Space-Air-Ground-Sea integrated communication and wireless tactile network- and allow them to evolve.Η πρωτοτυπία της παρούσας διατριβής έγκειται στο ότι πρότεινε και περιέγραψε ένα πλαίσιο δικτύου αναφοράς για Έλεγχο Πρόσβασης στο Μέσο για Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος και SDR Υπηρεσίες και για Έλεγχο Πρόσβασης στο Μέσο για Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος και SDR Αφηρημένες Υπηρεσίες και ολοκλήρωση τους και ανάπτυξη τους σε όλα κατά OSI επίπεδα για ετερογενή ασύρματα δίκτυα. Η αναγκαιότητα της ύπαρξης και αφαίρεσης υπηρεσιών χαμηλού επιπέδου λειτουργιών όπως και εφαρμογών τους στα πλαίσια του Γνωστικού Κύκλου είναι κάποια από τα κύρια σημεία που η παρούσα διατριβή διακηρύσσει ενώ παράλληλα προτείνει αλγορίθμους που να ανταποκρίνονται σε ποικίλα θέματα που αφορούν τα Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος. Οι τρέχουσες προκλήσεις στα Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα είναι η αποθήκευση μεγάλου όγκου πληροφοριών και η επεξεργασία τους σε πραγματικό χρόνο και η ανταλλλαγή τους μεταξύ των ασύρματων κόμβων του δικτύου σε αντιδιαστολή του περιορισμένου χώρου αποθήκευσης και της υπολογιστικής ικανότητας των Γνωστικών Συσκευών που απαιτούν πρόσθετες ικανότητες. Το Νέφος Γνωστικού Ασύρματου Δικτύου αποτελεί μια υποδομή που αποτελείται από κινητούς κόμβους και το νέφος των οποίων ο πρωταρχικός στόχος είναι να διατηρούν ενημερωμένη την κατάσταση του δικτύου και της διαθεσιμότητας του φάσματος. Απαιτητικές εργασίες όπως η επεξεργασία σήματος μπορούν να ανατεθούν στο ισχυρούς κόμβους τοπικά επιτρέποντας στο δίκτυο τοπικά να αυτορυθμιστεί. Επιτρέποντας στο δίκτυο να αυτορυθμιστεί και αναπτυχθεί τοπικά, τεράστια ετερογενή ασύρματα δίκτυα όπως τα δίκτυα 5G και 6G μπορούν να αναπτυχθούν και να μεταφέρουν την δυναμική πρόσβαση στο φάσμα και τον έλεγχο στους τελικούς χρήστες και τις απαιτήσεις της απόδοσης του ασύρματου δικτύου. Αυτορυθμιζόμενα Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα σε ένα τεράστιο ετερογενές ασύρματο δίκτυο μαζί με δυναμική πρόσβαση στο φάσμα και μεταβίβαση του ελέγχου κατά απαίτηση ή μη σε απάντηση των απαιτήσεων του δικτύου σε πραγματικό χρόνο μπορούν να πραγματοποιηθούν με υψηλό ποσοστό αφαίρεσης των Έλεγχο Πρόσβασης στο Μέσο για Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος και SDR Υπηρεσίες και για Έλεγχο Πρόσβασης στο Μέσο για Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος και SDR Αφηρημένες Υπηρεσίες και ολοκλήρωση τους και ανάπτυξη τους σε όλα κατά OSI επίπεδα για ετερογενή ασύρματα δίκτυα και ανάπτυξη τους ανεξάρτητα συστήματος, δικτύου, παρόχου. Κεντρικός συντονισμός εφαρμόζεται για να ενεργοποιήσει τοπικά νομαδικά δίκτυα όπως και προκειμένου να αυτορυθμιστούν και να επιτευχθούν μετρικές ποιότητας υπηρεσίας και δικτύου όπως και του οργανισμού. Η ομαδοποίηση του δικτύου όσον αφορά την Έλεγχο Πρόσβασης στο Μέσο για Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος και SDR Υπηρεσίες και για Έλεγχο Πρόσβασης στο Μέσο για Γνωστικά Ασύρματα Δίκτυα και Νέφος και SDR Αφηρημένες Υπηρεσίες προκειμένου να είναι εφικτές. Η Τεχνητή Νοημοσύνη και άλλες τεχνολογίες αποδίδουν και μπορούν να εφαρμοστούν κατανεμημένα. Οι χάρτες του φάσματος συχνοτήτων είναι μια δυναμική τεχνολογία προς αυτή την κατεύθυνση. Η μετατόπιση του φόρτου σε ισχυρούς κόμβους τοπικά αυξάνει την ικανότητα παροχής ποιότητας υπηρεσίας που είναι απαραίτητη για 5G, 6G δίκτυα για αστικά και μη αστικά περιβάλλοντα συχνοτήτων. Μια νέα μαθηματική μέθοδος για δημιουργία μαθηματικών παιγνίων προτάθηκε δηλ. Μια μέθοδος για γένεση παιγνίων χωρίς ανταλλαγή μηνυμάτων μέσω των παικτών και ένα αντίστοιχο μοντέλο παιγνίου ως εφαρμογή στην ασφάλεια των Γνωστικών Ασύρματων Δικτύων και Νέφους. Άλλα παίγνια που επιτυγχάνουν Nash Equilibrium προτάθηκαν. Ντετερμινιστικά Αυτόματα και Μηχανική Μάθηση προτάθηκαν όπως και μαθηματικοί τύποι προκειμένου να εφαρμοστούν σε δικτυακά πρωτόκολλα για μεγάλο ετερογενές δίκτυο, για πρόσβαση στο μέσο, εκπομπές, δίκτυα αισθητήρων, μαθηματικά συστημικά μοντέλα και σταθερής κατάστασης κατά Lyapunov συστήματα, αλγόριθμοι για προηγμένη επεξεργασία σήματος σε CRN-SDR και μαθηματικά μοντέλα για μη αμοιβαία κανάλια μετάδοσης για massive MIMO και αντίστοιχα LMMSE φίλτρα προτάθηκαν στην διατριβή

Personalised Medical Content Delivery to Support Patient Empowerment based on Knowledge Graphs

Health literacy empowers people to access, understand and apply health information to effectively manage their own health and to be an active participant in healthcare decisions. In this paper we propose a conceptual model for cognitive factors affecting health literacy and related socioeconomic aspects. Then we develop the HEALIE Knowledge Graph to represent the model, drawing from various medical ontologies, resources, and insights from domain experts. Finally, we combine the Knowledge Graph with a Natural Language Generation tool to generate personalised medical content

Mining Social Media for Perceptions and Trends on HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is an approach for preventing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which entails the administration of antiretroviral medication to high-risk seronegative persons. If taken correctly, PrEP can reduce HIV infection risk by more than 90%. The aim of this study was to identify and examine PrEP-related perceptions and trends discussed on Twitter. Using open-source technologies, text-mining and interactive visualisation techniques, a comprehensive data gathering and analytics Web-based platform was developed to facilitate the study objectives. Our results demonstrate that monitoring of PrEP-related discussions on Twitter can be detected over time and valuable insights can be obtained concerning issues of PrEP awareness, expressed opinions, perceived barriers and key discussion points on its adoption. The proposed platform could support public-health professionals and policy makers in PrEP monitoring, facilitating informed decision making and strategy planning for efficient HIV combination prevention