Defining pharmacy and its practice: a conceptual model for an international audience

Background: There is much fragmentation and little consensus in the use of descriptors for the different disciplines that make up the pharmacy sector. Globalization, reprofessionalization and the influx of other disciplines means there is a requirement for a greater degree of standardization. This has not been well addressed in the pharmacy practice research and education literature. Objectives: To identify and define the various subdisciplines of the pharmacy sector and integrate them into an internationally relevant conceptual model based on narrative synthesis of the literature. Methods: A literature review was undertaken to understand the fragmentation in dialogue surrounding definitions relating to concepts and practices in the context of the pharmacy sector. From a synthesis of this literature, the need for this model was justified. Key assumptions of the model were identified, and an organic process of development took place with the three authors engaging in a process of sense-making to theorize the model. Results: The model is “fit for purpose” across multiple countries and includes two components making up the umbrella term “pharmaceutical practice”. The first component is the four conceptual dimensions, which outline the disciplines including social and administrative sciences, community pharmacy, clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. The second component of the model describes the “acts of practice”: teaching, research and professional advocacy; service and academic enterprise. Conclusions: This model aims to expose issues relating to defining pharmacy and its practice and to create dialogue. No model is perfect, but there are implications for what is posited in the areas of policy, education and practice and future research. The main point is the need for increased clarity, or at least beginning the discussion to increase the clarity of definition and consistency of meaning in-and-across the pharmacy sector locally, nationally and internationall

Decays and spectrum of bottom and bottom strange mesons

The strong decay amplitudes and radiative partial widths of orbital and radially excited states of $B$ and $B_s$ mesons are presented. These results are obtained with a nonrelativistic potential quark model, the nonrelativistic reduction of the electromagnetic transition operator, and the "$^3P_0$" model of strong decays. The predictions are compared to experiment where possible and assignments for the recently discovered states, $B_1(5721)$, $B_2^*(5747)$, $B_J(5840)$, $B_J(5970)$, $B_{s1}(5830)$, and $B_{s2}^*(5840)$, are made.Comment: 36 pages, 3 figure

Fog based Secure Framework for Personal Health Records Systems

The rapid development of personal health records (PHR) systems enables an individual to collect, create, store and share his PHR to authorized entities. Health care systems within the smart city environment require a patient to share his PRH data with a multitude of institutions' repositories located in the cloud. The cloud computing paradigm cannot meet such a massive transformative healthcare systems due to drawbacks including network latency, scalability and bandwidth. Fog computing relieves the burden of conventional cloud computing by availing intermediate fog nodes between the end users and the remote servers. Aiming at a massive demand of PHR data within a ubiquitous smart city, we propose a secure and fog assisted framework for PHR systems to address security, access control and privacy concerns. Built under a fog-based architecture, the proposed framework makes use of efficient key exchange protocol coupled with ciphertext attribute based encryption (CP-ABE) to guarantee confidentiality and fine-grained access control within the system respectively. We also make use of digital signature combined with CP-ABE to ensure the system authentication and users privacy. We provide the analysis of the proposed framework in terms of security and performance.Comment: 12 pages (CMC Journal, Tech Science Press

Towards prevention of sportsmen burnout : Formal analysis of sub-optimal tournament scheduling

Funding Statement: The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia for funding this work through the Vice Deanship of Scientific Research Chairs: Chair of Pervasive and Mobile Computing.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Software Defined Network-Based Multi-Access Edge Framework for Vehicular Networks

The authors are grateful to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through Vice Deanship of Scientific Research Chairs: Chair of Pervasive and Mobile Computing.Peer reviewe

Aliskiren, enalapril, or aliskiren and enalapril in heart failure

BACKGROUND Among patients with chronic heart failure, angiotensin-converting–enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduce mortality and hospitalization, but the role of a renin inhibitor in such patients is unknown. We compared the ACE inhibitor enalapril with the renin inhibitor aliskiren (to test superiority or at least noninferiority) and with the combination of the two treatments (to test superiority) in patients with heart failure and a reduced ejection fraction. METHODS After a single-blind run-in period, we assigned patients, in a double-blind fashion, to one of three groups: 2336 patients were assigned to receive enalapril at a dose of 5 or 10 mg twice daily, 2340 to receive aliskiren at a dose of 300 mg once daily, and 2340 to receive both treatments (combination therapy). The primary composite outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or hospitalization for heart failure. RESULTS After a median follow-up of 36.6 months, the primary outcome occurred in 770 patients (32.9%) in the combination-therapy group and in 808 (34.6%) in the enalapril group (hazard ratio, 0.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85 to 1.03). The primary outcome occurred in 791 patients (33.8%) in the aliskiren group (hazard ratio vs. enalapril, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.90 to 1.10); the prespecified test for noninferiority was not met. There was a higher risk of hypotensive symptoms in the combination-therapy group than in the enalapril group (13.8% vs. 11.0%, P=0.005), as well as higher risks of an elevated serum creatinine level (4.1% vs. 2.7%, P=0.009) and an elevated potassium level (17.1% vs. 12.5%, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS In patients with chronic heart failure, the addition of aliskiren to enalapril led to more adverse events without an increase in benefit. Noninferiority was not shown for aliskiren as compared with enalapri

DC-Transformer Modelling, Analysis and Comparison of the Experimental Investigation of a Non-Inverting and Non-Isolated Nx Multilevel Boost Converter (Nx MBC) for Low to High DC Voltage Applications

This paper mainly focuses on the analysis, DC-transformer modeling, comparison, and experimental investigation of a non-inverting and non-isolated Nx multilevel boost converter (Nx MBC) for low to high DC applications. Recently, numerous isolated and non-isolated DC-DC converter configurations have been addressed for low to high DC voltage conversion purposes, which is vital for several applications (e.g., renewable energy, medical equipment, hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, DC-links, multilevel inverters, and drive applications), by utilizing and modifying the structure of reactive elements (switched capacitors and switched inductor circuitry). Among all the switched reactive structures, voltage multiplier circuitry provides a feasible solution for low to high DC voltage conversion due to its flexible and modular structure, voltage clamping capability, reduced rating of components, and ease of modification. Non-inverting and non-isolated Nx MBC combine the features and structures of conventional boost converters and voltage multiplier circuitry. DC-transformer modeling of Nx MBC is discussed for the continuous current mode (CCM) and discontinuous current mode (DCM), which helps to analyze the characteristics of the converter in a more practical way and helps to study the effect of semiconductor components, internal resistances, and load on the voltage conversion ratio of the converter. The mode of operation of Nx MBC in the CCM and DCM is also discussed with the boundary condition. The derived analysis is verified by simulations and experimental investigations, and the obtained results of 3x MBC always show good agreement with each other and the theoretical analysis.This publication was made possible by NPRP grant # [X-033-2-007] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.Scopu

A novel hybrid methodology to secure GOOSE messages against cyberattacks in smart grids

: IEC 61850 is emerging as a popular communication standard for smart grids. Standardized communication in smart grids has an unwanted consequence of higher vulnerability to cyber-attacks. Attackers exploit the standardized semantics of the communication protocols to launch different types of attacks such as false data injection (FDI) attacks. Hence, there is a need to develop a cybersecurity testbed and novel mitigation strategies to study the impact of attacks and mitigate them. This paper presents a testbed and methodology to simulate FDI attacks on IEC 61850 standard compliant Generic Object-Oriented Substation Events (GOOSE) protocol using real time digital simulator (RTDS) together with open-source tools such as Snort and Wireshark. Furthermore, a novel hybrid cybersecurity solution by the name of sequence content resolver is proposed to counter such attacks on the GOOSE protocol in smart grids. Utilizing the developed testbed FDI attacks in the form of replay and masquerade attacks on are launched and the impact of attacks on electrical side is studied. Finally, the proposed hybrid cybersecurity solution is implemented with the developed testbed and its effectiveness is demonstrated

Free-standing graphene films embedded in epoxy resin with enhanced thermal properties

The poor thermal conductivity of polymer composites has long been a deterrent to their increased use in high-end aerospace or defence applications. This study describes a new approach for the incorporation of graphene in an epoxy resin, through the addition of graphene as free-standing film in the polymeric matrix. The electrical and thermal conductivity of composites embedding two different free-standing graphene films was compared to composites with embedded carbon nanotube buckypapers (CNT-BP). Considerably higher thermal conductivity values than those achieved with conventional dispersing methods of graphene or CNTs in epoxy resins were obtained. The characterisation was complemented with a study of the structure at the microscale by cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The films are preconditioned in order to incorporate them into the composites, and the complete manufacturing process proposed allows the production and processing of these materials in large batches. The high thermal conductivity obtained for the composites opens the way for their use in demanding thermal management applications, such as electronic enclosures or platforms facing critical temperature loads.European Defence Agency tender No 17.ESI.OP.066. Study on the Impact of Graphene on Defence Application