Symptoms and Side Effects of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) among healthcare workers

Aim: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus which has infected millions of people across the globe in the form of a deadly pandemic. Safe and efficacious vaccines are needed urgently to prevent disease in the healthy population or at least decrease the intensity of illness post vaccination. Aim: To assess the post vaccination side effects among groups of individuals so that an effective vaccine can be proposed according to the individuals and thus avoiding reactogenicity, both systemic and local. Methods: A prospective study was conducted with the help of a web-based questionnaire (among health care workers) which used snowball sampling strategy and assigned persons aged ≥25-65 years, who received an intramuscular injection of the vaccine manufactured by Oxford-AstraZeneca. Safety and side effects were observed over a period of 15-20 days post vaccination to obtain results. Results: A total of 564 participants took part in the survey who received the vaccine via intramuscular route. Both systemic and local reactogenicity were recorded. Of the respondents, 280 (49.6%) people reported fever, 322 (57.18%) had pain, 89 (15.77%) had swelling and 53 (9.3%) had redness at the injection site. Total of 368 (65.2%) individuals suffered from body aches of whom 324 (57.4%) also reported headaches. Conclusion: Assessing the post vaccination symptoms, side effects and complications of AstraZeneca among different individuals helped in providing crucial and important information regarding the efficacy, safety and nature of the vaccine. Keywords: Covid-19, pandemic, vaccines, reactogenicity

Fingerprinting/indoor positioning using complex planar splines

The rapid development of various LBS-based applications and services that operate on the basis of the user’s current location, both global GPS and local LBS, today require the development of new and improved methods. This concerns, first of all, methods for determining the local location of LPS users in premises, if there is a high concentration of users and the presence of difficulties in the propagation of radio signals. the use of local methods of location determination based on the fingerprinting method is considered. It is shown that to improve the user positioning accuracy, it is expedient to use a combination of several methods. to determine the local location of the user, a method based on the finite element method and linear complex planar splines is proposed. the construction of linear complex planar splines is considered, their coefficients are found. finding the error in determining the coordinates of the user’s UE location is shown. The use of the proposed method will improve the accuracy of determining the coordinates of the user’s location and will ensure the provision of LBS services and applications to users in the premises under various conditions of their provision.

Measuring area-level disadvantage in Australia: development of a locally sensitive indicator

Background In Australia, the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), which includes the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD), captures the socioeconomic characteristics of areas. Because SEIFA rankings are relative to the country or state, the decile categorisations may not reflect an area’s socioeconomic standing relative to areas nearby. Aims The aim of the research was to explore whether IRSD rankings could be re-ranked to become locally sensitive. Data and methods Using existing SEIFA data to redistribute the membership of current decile IRSD groups, we tested three methods to re-rank all SA1 areas relative to the nearest areas capped at: (1) the nearest 99 neighbours, (2) a population threshold of 50,000 (3) a distance threshold of 10 km. Results The reclassification of SEIFA IRSD deciles was largest (up to 8 decile points of change) when comparing the nearest neighbour and population threshold local methods to current state-based rankings. Moreover, compared to using current national and state SEIFA IRSD rankings, the use of local rankings resulted in more evenly distributed deciles between cities, regional, and remote areas. Conclusions Because SEIFA IRSD rankings are used to allocate resources and health services, we encourage the combined use of a state and local ranking to refine areas considered the most disadvantaged.

Transpupillary laser thermotherapy of retinoblastoma

Introduction. Despite the fact that transpupillary thermotherapy (TTT) is one of the main local methods of small retinoblastoma (RB) destruction, only a few studies have been published on the use of this method, and they are devoted only to certain aspects of the application of TTT.Purpose of the study – to evaluate the effectiveness of TTT in the treatment of children with RB.Material and methods. In the period from 2011 to 2020, 177 children (224 eyes, 1156 tumors) with RB were treated by TTT. Of these, 99 (56 %) patients were boys, 78 (44 %) – girls. The mean age at the time of treatment was 16.8 months (from 0 to 86 months). Bilateral RB was observed in 128 (72.3 %) patients, monolateral – in 49 (27.7 %). In 51 (28.8 %) cases, TTT was performed on an only eye. TTT was performed on eyes that had RB of groups A (n = 43; 19 %), B (n = 81; 36 %), C (n = 31; 14 %), D (n = 63; 28 %), E (n = 6; 3 %). In total, 1156 tumors were treated by TTT. 488 (42 %) tumors were localized post-equatorially (of which 27 were located juxtapapillary, 23 – in the macular zone, 22 – paramacular). 668 (58 %) foci had pre-equatorial localization (on the middle and far periphery of the fundus). The number of foci in one eye varied from 1 to 48 (mean – 5). The mean tumor thickness was 1.1 mm (from 0.2 to 4.5), the mean base diameter was 2.2 mm (from 0.3 to 13.4). TTT was performed using a diode laser with the following parameters: wavelength – 810 nm, spot diameter – 1200 microns, power from 200 to 800 mW (mean – 350 mW), exposure-from 3 to 15 s in the application mode, and continuous in the scanning mode.Results. Complete tumor regression after TTT was achieved in 92 % of cases (1064 tumors). Incomplete regression of the tumor with stabilization was achieved in 0.7 % (8 tumors). The average number of TTT sessions to achieve full regression was 1.7 (from 1 to 10). Complete tumor regression after 1 TTT session was achieved in 54 % of cases (622 tumors), after 2 sessions – in 11 % (132 tumors), after 3 sessions – in 7 % (85 tumors), after 4 or more sessions– in 19 % (225 tumors). In 7 % of cases (82 tumors), due to the progression of the tumor, other treatment methods (brachytherapy, cryotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery) were applied. 209 (93 %) eyes were preserved. 15 (7 %) eyes were enucleated due to continued tumor growth, total retinal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, or subatrophy of the eyeball. The mean follow-up after TTT was 35.5 months (from 3 to 112 months).Conclusion. TTT is a highly effective method of RB treatment and can be used for destruction of small primary foci of both post-equatorial and pre-equatorial localization, residual tumors after inefficiency of other local methods. TTT is also effective in the treatment of large cavitary tumors located in functionally significant areas of the retina.

Evaluation of Passive Islanding Detection Methods for Line to Ground Unsymmetrical Fault in Three Phase Microgrid Systems: Microgrid Islanding Detection Method

Distributed Generators (DGs) are incorporated in the power distribution systems to develop green energies in microgrids. Islanding is a challenging task in a microgrid. Different types of islanding methods, e.g. local and remote methods, have been developed for handling this task, with local methods being easier to implement, while remote methods are communication-based and costly. The local methods are classified as passive, active, and hybrid, out of which the passive methods are more simple and economical. In this paper, a passive islanding detection method is proposed to detect single line to ground fault. This fault is considered to represent the 60 to 70% of the total un-intentional faults of this category. The available passive methods cannot detect islanding at lower power mismatches as the variations in voltage and frequency fall within thresholding values. In this method, the voltage signals are first retrieved at the targeted DG output and then the phase angle is estimated. Finally, the phase angle is differentiated to get Rate Of Change Of Voltage Phase Angle (ROCOVPA) to detect islanding, and then it is compared with the Rate Of Change Of Frequency (ROCOF) at zero percent power mismatch. Simulation results depict that the ROCOVPA is more effective than ROCOF. The proposed method not only reduces detection time and Non-Detection Zone (NDZ) but is also stable during non-islanding cases like load connection and disconnection to avoid nuisance tripping.

What alternative and innovative domestic methods of healthcare financing can be explored to fix the current claims reimbursement challenges by the National Health Insurance Scheme of Ghana? Perspectives of health managers

Background Low-and-middle -income countries (LMICs), to achieve sustainable universal health coverage (UHC) governments are implementing local and sustainable methods of healthcare financing. However, in Ghana, there is limited evidence on these local methods for healthcare financing to inform policy. This study aimed at exploring health managers views on alternative domestic and sustainable methods of healthcare financing for UHC under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Methods A qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 16 health facility managers were held. The health facilities and participants were selected using convenience and purposive sampling methods. A written consent was obtained from participants prior to participation in the interview. Data was transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic framework approach. Results Health managers across all the health facilities mentioned delayed and erratic claims reimbursement to health facilities as the main challenge. Participants attributed the main reason to lack of funds by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA). They said the delayed and irregular payments has been a challenge to efficient delivery of quality healthcare to clients. That in some instances they have been compelled to demand cash or out-of-pocket payment from insured clients or insurance card bearers to be able to render needed healthcare services to them. Participants think that to ensure regular reimbursement of claims to the health facilities by the NHIA, the managers think alternative local sources of funding need to be explored to fill the funding gap. To put in place this, they suggested the need to start levying special taxes on natural resources such as crude oil and gas, gold, bauxite, cocoa, mobile money transfers, airtime and increasing the proportion of levies on the existing Value Added Tax (VAT). Conclusion The study provides important insights into potential innovative alternative domestic sources for raising additional funds to finance healthcare services in Ghana. Despite the potential of these sources, it is important for governments and health policy makers in Ghana and other LMICs who are working towards implementing innovative local methods using special levies on mobile communication services and natural resources to finance their UHC, to implement those that best suit their economies to ensure equity for better health.

A propagation-based seed-centric local community detection for multilayer environment: The case study of colon adenocarcinoma

Regardless of all efforts on community discovery algorithms, it is still an open and challenging subject in network science. Recognizing communities in a multilayer network, where there are several layers (types) of connections, is even more complicated. Here, we concentrated on a specific type of communities called seed-centric local communities in the multilayer environment and developed a novel method based on the information cascade concept, called PLCDM. Our simulations on three datasets (real and artificial) signify that the suggested method outstrips two known earlier seed-centric local methods. Additionally, we compared it with other global multilayer and single-layer methods. Eventually, we applied our method on a biological two-layer network of Colon Adenocarcinoma (COAD), reconstructed from transcriptomic and post-transcriptomic datasets, and assessed the output modules. The functional enrichment consequences infer that the modules of interest hold biomolecules involved in the pathways associated with the carcinogenesis.

Land Use, Environmental, and Food Consumption Patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2000–2015: A Review

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) land use changes are primarily influenced by agriculture and its population. The region faces various challenges ranging from rainfall variabilities to poverty and insecurities, which further hampered food supply and production. The spatial analysis identified six land uses—agriculture, forest, grassland, wetland, urban, and others (i.e., bare land, water, and sparse vegetation), showing relative percentage changes. Additionally, information collected and analyzed shows that the Millennium Development Goals period witnessed increased agricultural land use changes in the environment to improve food supply, and farmers adopted local methods and native experiences to mitigate environmental particularities facing the region. Farmers’ landholdings are fragmented, and food supply per capita is low albeit rich in calories, and nutrition is still unbalanced, while bushmeat consumption is popular and serves as an alternative to animal-sourced protein. Concerted efforts should be made to improve food security and edge closer to the sustainable development goal during this decade.

Specific Modeling Issues on an Adaptive Winglet Skeleton

Morphing aeronautical systems may be used for a number of aims, ranging from improving performance in specific flight conditions, to keeping the optimal efficiency over a certain parameters domain instead of confining it to a single point, extending the flight envelope, and so on. An almost trivial statement is that traditional skeleton architectures cannot be held as a structure modified from being rigid to deformable. That passage is not simple, as a structure that is able to be modified shall be designed and constructed to face those new requirements. What is not marginal, is that the new configurations can lead to some peculiar problems for both the morphing and the standard, supporting, elements. In their own nature, in fact, adaptive systems are designed to contain all the parts within the original geometry, without any “external adjoint”, such as nacelles or others. Stress and strain distribution may vary a lot with respect to usual structures and some particular modifications are required. Sometimes, it happens that the structural behavior does not match with the common experience and some specific adjustment shall be done to overcome the problem. What is reported in this paper is a study concerning the adaptation of the structural architecture, used to host a winglet morphing system, to make it accomplish the original requirements, i.e., allow the deformation values to be under the safety threshold. When facing that problem, an uncommon behavior of the finite element (FE) solver has been met: the safety factors appear to be tremendously dependent on the mesh size, so as to raise serious questions about the actual expected value, relevant for the most severe load conditions. On the other side, such singularities are more and more confined into single points (or single lines), as the mesh refines, so to evidence somehow the numerical effect behind those results. On the other side, standard engineering local methods to reduce the abovementioned strain peaks seem to work very well in re-distributing the stress and strain excesses to the whole system domain. The work does not intend to give an answer to the presented problem, being instead focused on describing its possible causes and its evident effects. Further work is necessary to detect the original source of such inconsistencies, and propose and test operative solutions. That will be the subject of the next steps of the ongoing research.

Geographically varying relationships of COVID-19 mortality with different factors in India

COVID-19 is a global crisis where India is going to be one of the most heavily affected countries. The variability in the distribution of COVID-19-related health outcomes might be related to many underlying variables, including demographic, socioeconomic, or environmental pollution related factors. The global and local models can be utilized to explore such relations. In this study, ordinary least square (global) and geographically weighted regression (local) methods are employed to explore the geographical relationships between COVID-19 deaths and different driving factors. It is also investigated whether geographical heterogeneity exists in the relationships. More specifically, in this paper, the geographical pattern of COVID-19 deaths and its relationships with different potential driving factors in India are investigated and analysed. Here, better knowledge and insights into geographical targeting of intervention against the COVID-19 pandemic can be generated by investigating the heterogeneity of spatial relationships. The results show that the local method (geographically weighted regression) generates better performance ($$R^{2}=0.97$$ R 2 = 0.97 ) with smaller Akaike Information Criterion (AICc $$=-66.42$$ = - 66.42 ) as compared to the global method (ordinary least square). The GWR method also comes up with lower spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s $$I=-0.0395$$ I = - 0.0395 and $$p < 0.01$$ p < 0.01 ) in the residuals. It is found that more than 86% of local $$R^{2}$$ R 2 values are larger than 0.60 and almost 68% of $$R^{2}$$ R 2 values are within the range 0.80–0.97. Moreover, some interesting local variations in the relationships are also found.