30 research outputs found
Measuring routine childhood vaccination coverage in 204 countries and territories, 1980-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020, Release 1
Background: Measuring routine childhood vaccination is crucial to inform global vaccine policies and programme implementation, and to track progress towards targets set by the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) and Immunization Agenda 2030. Robust estimates of routine vaccine coverage are needed to identify past successes and persistent vulnerabilities. Drawing from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2020, Release 1, we did a systematic analysis of global, regional, and national vaccine coverage trends using a statistical framework, by vaccine and over time. //
Methods: For this analysis we collated 55â326 country-specific, cohort-specific, year-specific, vaccine-specific, and dose-specific observations of routine childhood vaccination coverage between 1980 and 2019. Using spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, we produced location-specific and year-specific estimates of 11 routine childhood vaccine coverage indicators for 204 countries and territories from 1980 to 2019, adjusting for biases in country-reported data and reflecting reported stockouts and supply disruptions. We analysed global and regional trends in coverage and numbers of zero-dose children (defined as those who never received a diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis [DTP] vaccine dose), progress towards GVAP targets, and the relationship between vaccine coverage and sociodemographic development. //
Findings: By 2019, global coverage of third-dose DTP (DTP3; 81·6% [95% uncertainty interval 80·4â82·7]) more than doubled from levels estimated in 1980 (39·9% [37·5â42·1]), as did global coverage of the first-dose measles-containing vaccine (MCV1; from 38·5% [35·4â41·3] in 1980 to 83·6% [82·3â84·8] in 2019). Third-dose polio vaccine (Pol3) coverage also increased, from 42·6% (41·4â44·1) in 1980 to 79·8% (78·4â81·1) in 2019, and global coverage of newer vaccines increased rapidly between 2000 and 2019. The global number of zero-dose children fell by nearly 75% between 1980 and 2019, from 56·8 million (52·6â60·9) to 14·5 million (13·4â15·9). However, over the past decade, global vaccine coverage broadly plateaued; 94 countries and territories recorded decreasing DTP3 coverage since 2010. Only 11 countries and territories were estimated to have reached the national GVAP target of at least 90% coverage for all assessed vaccines in 2019. //
Interpretation: After achieving large gains in childhood vaccine coverage worldwide, in much of the world this progress was stalled or reversed from 2010 to 2019. These findings underscore the importance of revisiting routine immunisation strategies and programmatic approaches, recentring service delivery around equity and underserved populations. Strengthening vaccine data and monitoring systems is crucial to these pursuits, now and through to 2030, to ensure that all children have access to, and can benefit from, lifesaving vaccines
Social media in undergraduate medical education: A systematic review.
INTRODUCTION: There are over 3.81 billion worldwide active social media (SoMe) users. SoMe are ubiquitous in medical education, with roles across undergraduate programmes, including professionalism, blended learning, well being and mentoring. Previous systematic reviews took place before recent explosions in SoMe popularity and revealed a paucity of high-quality empirical studies assessing its effectiveness in medical education. This review aimed to synthesise evidence regarding SoMe interventions in undergraduate medical education, to identify features associated with positive and negative outcomes. METHODS: Authors searched 31 key terms through seven databases, in addition to references, citation and hand searching, between 16 June and 16 July 2020. Studies describing SoMe interventions and research on exposure to existing SoMe were included. Title, abstract and full paper screening were undertaken independently by two reviewers. Included papers were assessed for methodological quality using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) and/or the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) instrument. Extracted data were synthesised using narrative synthesis. RESULTS: 112 studies from 26 countries met inclusion criteria. Methodological quality of included studies had not significantly improved since 2013. Engagement and satisfaction with SoMe platforms in medical education are described. Students felt SoMe flattened hierarchies and improved communication with educators. SoMe use was associated with improvement in objective knowledge assessment scores and self-reported clinical and professional performance, however evidence for long term knowledge retention was limited. SoMe use was occasionally linked to adverse impacts upon mental and physical health. Professionalism was heavily investigated and considered important, though generally negative correlations between SoMe use and medical professionalism may exist. CONCLUSIONS: Social media is enjoyable for students who may improve short term knowledge retention and can aid communication between learners and educators. However, higher-quality study is required to identify longer-term impact upon knowledge and skills, provide clarification on professionalism standards and protect against harms
Global burden of cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, 1990â2019: update from the GBD 2019 study
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), principally ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, are the leading cause of global mortality and a major contributor to disability. This paper reviews the magnitude of total CVD burden, including 13 underlying causes of cardiovascular death and 9 related risk factors, using estimates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2019. GBD, an ongoing multinational collaboration to provide comparable and consistent estimates of population health over time, used all available population-level data sources on incidence, prevalence, case fatality, mortality, and health risks to produce estimates for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019.
Prevalent cases of total CVD nearly doubled from 271 million (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 257 to 285 million) in 1990 to 523 million (95% UI: 497 to 550 million) in 2019, and the number of CVD deaths steadily increased from 12.1 million (95% UI:11.4 to 12.6 million) in 1990, reaching 18.6 million (95% UI: 17.1 to 19.7 million) in 2019. The global trends for disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years of life lost also increased significantly, and years lived with disability doubled from 17.7 million (95% UI: 12.9 to 22.5 million) to 34.4 million (95% UI:24.9 to 43.6 million) over that period. The total number of DALYs due to IHD has risen steadily since 1990, reaching 182 million (95% UI: 170 to 194 million) DALYs, 9.14 million (95% UI: 8.40 to 9.74 million) deaths in the year 2019, and 197 million (95% UI: 178 to 220 million) prevalent cases of IHD in 2019. The total number of DALYs due to stroke has risen steadily since 1990, reaching 143 million (95% UI: 133 to 153 million) DALYs, 6.55 million (95% UI: 6.00 to 7.02 million) deaths in the year 2019, and 101 million (95% UI: 93.2 to 111 million) prevalent cases of stroke in 2019.
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of disease burden in the world. CVD burden continues its decades-long rise for almost all countries outside high-income countries, and alarmingly, the age-standardized rate of CVD has begun to rise in some locations where it was previously declining in high-income countries. There is an urgent need to focus on implementing existing cost-effective policies and interventions if the world is to meet the targets for Sustainable Development Goal 3 and achieve a 30% reduction in premature mortality due to noncommunicable diseases
Modeling and empirical evaluation of machine learning based load forecasting models for Pakistan
Treatment of maxillofacial congenital melanocytic nevus with percutaneous radiofrequency thermal ablation: A case series study
A Congestion Aware Route Suggestion Protocol for Traffic Management in Internet of Vehicles
\ua9 2019, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. Nowadays, both the modern and developing countries are planning to deploy Internet of Vehicles for smart transportation systems to face the traffic congestion problems. Shifting from current road conditions to smart ones is a real challenge where all the vehicles and road infrastructure are not equipped with wireless network interfaces. The urban environment is more congested than highway scenarios and has more issues of delay and travel time. Various types of route suggestion protocols have been proposed where most of them consider smart vehicles which are equipped with smart and intelligent communication devices. The most of existing schemes have not considered non-equipped vehicles which have a major cause of traffic congestion. This paper presents a route suggestion protocol to suggest an optimal congestion aware route in the network. Equipped and non-equipped vehicles are taking into account for congestion index formulation along with driving distraction factors. Simulation results indicated the greater performance of proposed protocol and reduce the travel time effectively when works with IoV as compared to traditional route suggestion protocols
Energy-aware cluster-based routing optimization for WSNs in the livestock industry
\ua9 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The core objective of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in the livestock industry is monitoring the state and activities of different animals for their well-being. Being energy-constrained, the consumption of these tiny devices needs to be optimized. Several techniques have been developed for making clusters in WSNs. The sensor nodes attached to the animals are mobile and dynamic in nature. Cluster heads (CHs) are selected to manage communication within a cluster. For efficient working of a network, the lifetime of clusters should be longer and there must always be a minimum number of clusters to make a network operational. This paper presents a metaheuristic artificial intelligence technique based on the social behavior of gray wolves to reduce the energy consumption of WSNs in the livestock industry. This nature-inspired clustering algorithm provides the robust and smooth communication for WSNs in the livestock industry. The grid size, energy level, direction, and transmission range are the key parameters used to measure the performance of algorithm. Results are compared with other well-known similar nature-inspired optimization algorithms such as comprehensive learning particle swarm optimization (CLPSO) and ant colony optimizationâbased clustering (CACONET). The simulation results exhibit the superiority of grey wolf optimizer in energy efficiency, cost effectiveness, and CH selection than CACONET and CLPSO
Optimized Nanostructured Lipid Carriers Integrated into in situ Nasal Gel for Enhancing Brain Delivery of Flibanserin [Retraction]
Fahmy UA, Ahmed OAA, Badr-Eldin SM, et al. Int J Nanomedicine. 2020;15:5253-5264.
The Editor and Publisher of International Journal of Nanomedicine are retracting the above published article. An investigation by the Publisher, found overlap in images from Figure 6 of the published article above and the images from Figure 6 of the following published article:
Ahmed OAA, Fahmy UA, Badr-Eldin SM, et al. Application of Nanopharmaceutics for Flibanserin Brain Delivery Augmentation Via the Nasal Route. Nanomaterials. 2020; 10(7):1270 (https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10071270).
Specifically, this included:
From the published article above, Figure 6B, plain in situ gel group, and 6D, optimized FLB-NLC in situ gel group, are the same images as Figure 6D, rats treated with optimized FLB-TRF hydrogel (gp4) and 6C, rats treated with raw FLB loaded in hydrogel (gp3), respectively, from Ahmed et al, 2020.
Furthermore, the images in Figure 6 of the published article above are derived from the same image but used to describe different results.
Specifically, this included:
From the published article above, Figure 6A, Control untreated group; 6B, plain in situ gel group; 6C, raw FLB loaded in situ gel group and 6D, optimized FLB-NLC in situ gel group, are all derived from the same image but used to describe different results.
The authors cooperated with the investigation and provided data and associated documents concerning the histopathological experiments from the reported study. However, the Editor and Publisher determined that the evidence provided did not establish sufficient justification for the duplication. Therefore, the Editor and Publisher are retracting the article. The authors have agreed to retract the article and have informed the Publisher that the first author, Usama A Fahmy, takes responsibility for the error which occurred.
We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines.
The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”
Quantifying Food Waste in the Hospitality Sector and Exploring Its Underlying ReasonsâA Case Study of Lahore, Pakistan
Given that about 40% of the total food produced globally is lost or wasted, there is an urgent need to understand what, where, why and how much food waste is generated. In this study, we collected the much-needed primary empirical data from the restaurants, hotels and caterers of Lahore, Pakistan through surveys and live tracking/diaries. Specifically, two key performance indicators, waste per customer (g) and percentage waste per day (%), were measured. Waste per customer was found to be 79.9 g (survey) and 73.4 g (live tracking) for restaurants, 138.4 g for hotels and 140.0 g for caterers. Similarly, the percentage of waste per day (%) was found to be 15% (survey) and 17% (live tracking) for restaurants. Results revealed that customer plate leftovers were reported to be the primary source of food waste, followed by inaccurate customer forecasting. Given the food waste levels identified in this study, the development and adoption of a national goal and target aimed at food waste reduction could usefully guide the efforts of all stakeholders. To achieve this, we need to build the capacity of all the relevant stakeholders on food loss and waste measurements and ensure national food waste reporting