In recent years,there has been an increasing need for climate information across diverse sectors of society.This demand has arisen from the necessity to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate variability and cha...In recent years,there has been an increasing need for climate information across diverse sectors of society.This demand has arisen from the necessity to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate variability and change.Likewise,this period has seen a significant increase in our understanding of the physical processes and mechanisms that drive precipitation and its variability across different regions of Africa.By leveraging a large volume of climate model outputs,numerous studies have investigated the model representation of African precipitation as well as underlying physical processes.These studies have assessed whether the physical processes are well depicted and whether the models are fit for informing mitigation and adaptation strategies.This paper provides a review of the progress in precipitation simulation overAfrica in state-of-the-science climate models and discusses the major issues and challenges that remain.展开更多
Phishing is one of the most common threats on the Internet. Traditionally, detection methods have relied on blacklists and heuristic rules, but these approaches are showing their limitations in the face of rapidly evo...Phishing is one of the most common threats on the Internet. Traditionally, detection methods have relied on blacklists and heuristic rules, but these approaches are showing their limitations in the face of rapidly evolving attack techniques. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers promising solutions for improving phishing detection, prediction and prevention. In our study, we analyzed three supervised machine learning classifiers and one deep learning classifier for detecting and predicting phishing websites: Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, Gradient Boosting and Multi-Layer Perceptron. The results showed that the Gradient Boosting Classifier performed best, with a precision of 96.2%, a F1-score of 96.6%, recall and precision of 99.9% in all classes, and a mean absolute error (MAE) of just 0.002. Closely followed by the Gradient Boosting Classifier with a precision of 96.2% and a score of 96.6%. In contrast, Naive Bayes and the Decision Tree showed a lower accuracy rate. These results underline the importance of high accuracy in these models to reduce the risk associated with malicious attachments and reinforce security measures in this area of research.展开更多
This article explores the comparison between the probability method and the least squares method in the design of linear predictive models. It points out that these two approaches have distinct theoretical foundations...This article explores the comparison between the probability method and the least squares method in the design of linear predictive models. It points out that these two approaches have distinct theoretical foundations and can lead to varied or similar results in terms of precision and performance under certain assumptions. The article underlines the importance of comparing these two approaches to choose the one best suited to the context, available data and modeling objectives.展开更多
Geospatial technologies can be leveraged to optimize the available resources for better productivity and sustainability. The resources can be human, software and hardware equipment and their effective management can e...Geospatial technologies can be leveraged to optimize the available resources for better productivity and sustainability. The resources can be human, software and hardware equipment and their effective management can enhance operational efficiency through better and informed decision making. This review article examines the application of geospatial technologies, including GPS, GIS, and remote sensing, for optimizing resource utilization in livestock management. It compares these technologies to traditional livestock management practices and highlights their potential to improve animal tracking, feed intake monitoring, disease monitoring, pasture selection, and rangeland management. Previously, animal management practices were labor-intensive, time-consuming, and required more precision for optimal animal health and productivity. Digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have transformed the livestock sector through precision livestock management. However, major challenges such as high cost, availability and accessibility to these technologies have deterred their implementation. To fully realize the benefits and tremendous contribution of these digital technologies and to address the challenges associated with their widespread adoption, the review proposes a collaborative approach between different stakeholders in the livestock sector including livestock farmers, researchers, veterinarians, industry professionals, technology developers, the private sector, financial institutions and government to share knowledge and expertise. The collaboration would facilitate the integration of various strategies to ensure the effective and wide adoption of digital technologies in livestock management by supporting the development of user-friendly and accessible tools tailored to specific livestock management and production systems.展开更多
The development of digital platforms is transforming caregiver-patient interactions and the dissemination of knowledge.Obtaining information from the Internet has become a habit for many patients and must be considere...The development of digital platforms is transforming caregiver-patient interactions and the dissemination of knowledge.Obtaining information from the Internet has become a habit for many patients and must be considered by caregivers.Thus,understanding the use of digital tools by patients is a public health issue.The Sav-AQ study aims to understand patterns of use by women with breast cancer and the role of health professionals.Sav-AQ is an exploratory feasibility study with a mixed design,exploring patient and healthcare experience before and after the integration of a specific website into their care pathways.The research is based on the digital platform“My Breast Cancer Network”,which was built by and for patients with breast cancer.A group of 30 breast cancer patients and six healthcare professionals using the platform were followed.The results show that for all users,the activity on the website decreases over time.At the beginning of the course,patients were more assiduous,which can be explained by the search for elements related to an unknown care pathway.The results also show that technical skills to use the platform are necessary for patients and must be accompanied by a health professional.It is of interest to devise a larger study to assessing the impact of such a platform on patient healthcare uptake and health skills development.展开更多
Background Mammary gland(MG)infections(mastitis)are frequent diseases of dairy cows that affect milk quality,animal welfare and farming profitability.These infections are commonly associated with the bacteria Escheric...Background Mammary gland(MG)infections(mastitis)are frequent diseases of dairy cows that affect milk quality,animal welfare and farming profitability.These infections are commonly associated with the bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.Different in vitro models have been used to investigate the early response of the MG to bacteria,but the role of the teat in mastitis pathogenesis has received less attention.In this study,we used punch-excised teat tissue as an ex vivo model to study the immune mechanisms that arise early during infection when bacteria have entered the MG.Results Cytotoxicity and microscopic analyses showed that bovine teat sinus explants have their morphology and viability preserved after 24 h of culture and respond to ex vivo stimulation with TLR-agonists and bacteria.LPS and E.coli trigger stronger inflammatory response in teat when compared to LTA and S.aureus,leading to a higher produc-tion of IL-6 and IL-8,as well as to an up-regulation of proinflammatory genes.We also demonstrated that our ex vivo model can be applied to frozen-stored explants.Conclusions In compliance with the 3Rs principle(replacement,reduction and refinement)in animal experimenta-tion,ex vivo explant analyses proved to be a simple and affordable approach to study MG immune response to infec-tion.This model,which better reproduces organ complexity than epithelial cell cultures or tissue slices,lends itself particularly well to studying the early phases of the MG immune response to infection.展开更多
Numbers of 300 day-old broiler chickens through a CRD design with 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 20 chicks in each pen were used to evaluate the effect of thyme (T), licorice (L), thyme + licorice (TL), and enzyme sup...Numbers of 300 day-old broiler chickens through a CRD design with 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 20 chicks in each pen were used to evaluate the effect of thyme (T), licorice (L), thyme + licorice (TL), and enzyme supplemented (E) diets on performance, immune and carcass characteristics. According to the results, performance traits, immune indices, and carcass traits in herbal medicine and enzyme supplemented diets were improved significantly than control diet (P < 0.05). Weight gain and FCR in T and E groups were significantly higher and lower than other groups respectively (P < 0.05). Internal organs such as abdominal fat and liver weight as indicators of lipogenesis rate were decreased in T, L, and TL diets than control or E diet significantly (P < 0.05). Immune organs such as burse and spleen weight as indicators of immune situation were increased in TL diet than other treatments significantly (P < 0.05). These findings indicated that thyme and licorice singly or in combination as organic herbal medicine can affect performance, carcass and immune characteristics. Also an improved immune organ such as burse or spleen in this study indicates that this herbal medicine can promote the immune situation and efficacy of health and livability.展开更多
Theoretical foundations of programming systems from modules, objects, components, services are given. Identified relevant theory of programming proposed by the author with the participation of students and postgraduat...Theoretical foundations of programming systems from modules, objects, components, services are given. Identified relevant theory of programming proposed by the author with the participation of students and postgraduates: graph modular programming theory with graph representation as an adjacency matrix for mathematical achievability of graph vertices;theory of generating programming and theory of software factories;theory of graph object and component modeling (OCM) by means of logic and algebra-mathematical theory of determining individual elements of complex systems;theory of system programming based on ontological and service-component models (SOA, SCA) with security and quality systems. The Internet Smart and Nanotechnology are given for perspective transition of computer technology to nanotechnology.展开更多
Longitudinal studies are those in which the same variable is repeatedly measured at different times. These studies are more likely than others to suffer from missing values. Since the presence of missing values may ha...Longitudinal studies are those in which the same variable is repeatedly measured at different times. These studies are more likely than others to suffer from missing values. Since the presence of missing values may have an important impact on statistical analyses, it is important that they should be dealt with properly. In this paper, we present “Copy Mean”, a new method to impute intermittent missing values. We compared its efficiency in eleven imputation methods dedicated to the treatment of missing values in longitudinal data. All these methods were tested on three markedly different real datasets (stationary, increasing, and sinusoidal pattern) with complete data. For each of them, we generated nine types of incomplete datasets that include 10%, 30%, or 50% of missing data using either a Missing Completely at Random, a Missing at Random, or a Missing Not at Random missingness mechanism. Our results show that Copy Mean has a great effectiveness, exceeding or equaling the performance of other methods in almost all configurations. The effectiveness of linear interpolation is highly data-dependent. The Last Occurrence Carried Forward method is strongly discouraged.展开更多
This study pursues the objective of analyzing and verifying the knowledge of the agents of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique/ISP-Bukavu (TTC = Teachers’ training College) in relation to the practical flaws...This study pursues the objective of analyzing and verifying the knowledge of the agents of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique/ISP-Bukavu (TTC = Teachers’ training College) in relation to the practical flaws resulting from the lack of knowledge of the observable rules in information system security. In a clearer way, it aims to verify the level of knowledge of the vulnerabilities, to verify the level of use of the antivirus software, to analyze the frequency of use of Windows update, the use of an anti-spyware software as well as a firewall software on the computer. Through a survey conducted on a sample of 100 agents of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique/ISP-Bukavu (TTC = Teachers’ training College), the results revealed that 48% of the sample has no knowledge on computer vulnerabilities;for the use of antivirus software: 47% do not use the antivirus;for Windows update: 29% never update the Windows operating system;for anti-spyware: 48% never use;for the firewall: 50% are not informed. In fine, our results proposed a protection model VMAUSP (Vulnerability Measurability Measures Antivirus, Update, Spyware and Firewall) to users based on the behavioral approach, learning how the model works.展开更多
Problem: Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of HIV seroprevalence in the world. In 2001 only 4%of women and children in need of services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV were receiving them. De...Problem: Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of HIV seroprevalence in the world. In 2001 only 4%of women and children in need of services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV were receiving them. Design: Pilot implementation of the first programme for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in rural Zimbabwe. Setting: 120 bed district hospital in Buhera district (285 000 inhabitants), Manicaland, Zimbabwe. Key measures for improvement: Programme uptake indicators monitored for 18 months; impact of policy evaluated by assessing upscaling of programme. Strategies for change: Voluntary counselling and testing services for HIV were provided in the hospital antenatal clinic. Women identified as HIV positive and informed of their serostatus and their newborn were offered a single dose antiretroviral treatment of nevirapine; motherchild pairs were followed up through routine health services. Nursing staff and social workers were trained, and community mobilisation was conducted. Effects of change: No services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV were available at baseline. Within 18 months, 2298 pregnant women had received pretest counselling, and the acceptance of HIV testing reached 93.0%. Of all 2137 women who had an HIV test, 1588 (74.3%) returned to collect their result; 326 of the 437 HIV positive women diagnosed had posttest counselling, and 104 (24%) motherchild pairs received nevirapine prophylaxis. Lessons learnt: Minimum staffing, an enhanced training programme, and involvement of district health authorities are needed for the implementation and successful integration of services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. Voluntary counselling and testing services are important entry points for HIV prevention and care and for referral to community networks and medical HIV care services. A district approach is critical to extend programmes for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in rural settings. The lessons learnt from this pilot programme have contributed to the design of the national expansion strategy for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in Zimbabwe.展开更多
基金the World Climate Research Programme(WCRP),Climate Variability and Predictability(CLIVAR),and Global Energy and Water Exchanges(GEWEX)for facilitating the coordination of African monsoon researchsupport from the Center for Earth System Modeling,Analysis,and Data at the Pennsylvania State Universitythe support of the Office of Science of the U.S.Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research as part of the Regional&Global Model Analysis(RGMA)program area。
文摘In recent years,there has been an increasing need for climate information across diverse sectors of society.This demand has arisen from the necessity to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate variability and change.Likewise,this period has seen a significant increase in our understanding of the physical processes and mechanisms that drive precipitation and its variability across different regions of Africa.By leveraging a large volume of climate model outputs,numerous studies have investigated the model representation of African precipitation as well as underlying physical processes.These studies have assessed whether the physical processes are well depicted and whether the models are fit for informing mitigation and adaptation strategies.This paper provides a review of the progress in precipitation simulation overAfrica in state-of-the-science climate models and discusses the major issues and challenges that remain.
文摘Phishing is one of the most common threats on the Internet. Traditionally, detection methods have relied on blacklists and heuristic rules, but these approaches are showing their limitations in the face of rapidly evolving attack techniques. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers promising solutions for improving phishing detection, prediction and prevention. In our study, we analyzed three supervised machine learning classifiers and one deep learning classifier for detecting and predicting phishing websites: Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, Gradient Boosting and Multi-Layer Perceptron. The results showed that the Gradient Boosting Classifier performed best, with a precision of 96.2%, a F1-score of 96.6%, recall and precision of 99.9% in all classes, and a mean absolute error (MAE) of just 0.002. Closely followed by the Gradient Boosting Classifier with a precision of 96.2% and a score of 96.6%. In contrast, Naive Bayes and the Decision Tree showed a lower accuracy rate. These results underline the importance of high accuracy in these models to reduce the risk associated with malicious attachments and reinforce security measures in this area of research.
文摘This article explores the comparison between the probability method and the least squares method in the design of linear predictive models. It points out that these two approaches have distinct theoretical foundations and can lead to varied or similar results in terms of precision and performance under certain assumptions. The article underlines the importance of comparing these two approaches to choose the one best suited to the context, available data and modeling objectives.
文摘Geospatial technologies can be leveraged to optimize the available resources for better productivity and sustainability. The resources can be human, software and hardware equipment and their effective management can enhance operational efficiency through better and informed decision making. This review article examines the application of geospatial technologies, including GPS, GIS, and remote sensing, for optimizing resource utilization in livestock management. It compares these technologies to traditional livestock management practices and highlights their potential to improve animal tracking, feed intake monitoring, disease monitoring, pasture selection, and rangeland management. Previously, animal management practices were labor-intensive, time-consuming, and required more precision for optimal animal health and productivity. Digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have transformed the livestock sector through precision livestock management. However, major challenges such as high cost, availability and accessibility to these technologies have deterred their implementation. To fully realize the benefits and tremendous contribution of these digital technologies and to address the challenges associated with their widespread adoption, the review proposes a collaborative approach between different stakeholders in the livestock sector including livestock farmers, researchers, veterinarians, industry professionals, technology developers, the private sector, financial institutions and government to share knowledge and expertise. The collaboration would facilitate the integration of various strategies to ensure the effective and wide adoption of digital technologies in livestock management by supporting the development of user-friendly and accessible tools tailored to specific livestock management and production systems.
文摘The development of digital platforms is transforming caregiver-patient interactions and the dissemination of knowledge.Obtaining information from the Internet has become a habit for many patients and must be considered by caregivers.Thus,understanding the use of digital tools by patients is a public health issue.The Sav-AQ study aims to understand patterns of use by women with breast cancer and the role of health professionals.Sav-AQ is an exploratory feasibility study with a mixed design,exploring patient and healthcare experience before and after the integration of a specific website into their care pathways.The research is based on the digital platform“My Breast Cancer Network”,which was built by and for patients with breast cancer.A group of 30 breast cancer patients and six healthcare professionals using the platform were followed.The results show that for all users,the activity on the website decreases over time.At the beginning of the course,patients were more assiduous,which can be explained by the search for elements related to an unknown care pathway.The results also show that technical skills to use the platform are necessary for patients and must be accompanied by a health professional.It is of interest to devise a larger study to assessing the impact of such a platform on patient healthcare uptake and health skills development.
基金FEDER/Region Centre Val de Loire ANIMALT grant (FEDER convention number EX007516, Region Centre convention number 2019–00134936, research program number AE-2019–1850)a post-doc fellowship from INRAE–Département Santé Animale
文摘Background Mammary gland(MG)infections(mastitis)are frequent diseases of dairy cows that affect milk quality,animal welfare and farming profitability.These infections are commonly associated with the bacteria Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.Different in vitro models have been used to investigate the early response of the MG to bacteria,but the role of the teat in mastitis pathogenesis has received less attention.In this study,we used punch-excised teat tissue as an ex vivo model to study the immune mechanisms that arise early during infection when bacteria have entered the MG.Results Cytotoxicity and microscopic analyses showed that bovine teat sinus explants have their morphology and viability preserved after 24 h of culture and respond to ex vivo stimulation with TLR-agonists and bacteria.LPS and E.coli trigger stronger inflammatory response in teat when compared to LTA and S.aureus,leading to a higher produc-tion of IL-6 and IL-8,as well as to an up-regulation of proinflammatory genes.We also demonstrated that our ex vivo model can be applied to frozen-stored explants.Conclusions In compliance with the 3Rs principle(replacement,reduction and refinement)in animal experimenta-tion,ex vivo explant analyses proved to be a simple and affordable approach to study MG immune response to infec-tion.This model,which better reproduces organ complexity than epithelial cell cultures or tissue slices,lends itself particularly well to studying the early phases of the MG immune response to infection.
文摘Numbers of 300 day-old broiler chickens through a CRD design with 5 treatments, 3 replicates and 20 chicks in each pen were used to evaluate the effect of thyme (T), licorice (L), thyme + licorice (TL), and enzyme supplemented (E) diets on performance, immune and carcass characteristics. According to the results, performance traits, immune indices, and carcass traits in herbal medicine and enzyme supplemented diets were improved significantly than control diet (P < 0.05). Weight gain and FCR in T and E groups were significantly higher and lower than other groups respectively (P < 0.05). Internal organs such as abdominal fat and liver weight as indicators of lipogenesis rate were decreased in T, L, and TL diets than control or E diet significantly (P < 0.05). Immune organs such as burse and spleen weight as indicators of immune situation were increased in TL diet than other treatments significantly (P < 0.05). These findings indicated that thyme and licorice singly or in combination as organic herbal medicine can affect performance, carcass and immune characteristics. Also an improved immune organ such as burse or spleen in this study indicates that this herbal medicine can promote the immune situation and efficacy of health and livability.
文摘Theoretical foundations of programming systems from modules, objects, components, services are given. Identified relevant theory of programming proposed by the author with the participation of students and postgraduates: graph modular programming theory with graph representation as an adjacency matrix for mathematical achievability of graph vertices;theory of generating programming and theory of software factories;theory of graph object and component modeling (OCM) by means of logic and algebra-mathematical theory of determining individual elements of complex systems;theory of system programming based on ontological and service-component models (SOA, SCA) with security and quality systems. The Internet Smart and Nanotechnology are given for perspective transition of computer technology to nanotechnology.
文摘Longitudinal studies are those in which the same variable is repeatedly measured at different times. These studies are more likely than others to suffer from missing values. Since the presence of missing values may have an important impact on statistical analyses, it is important that they should be dealt with properly. In this paper, we present “Copy Mean”, a new method to impute intermittent missing values. We compared its efficiency in eleven imputation methods dedicated to the treatment of missing values in longitudinal data. All these methods were tested on three markedly different real datasets (stationary, increasing, and sinusoidal pattern) with complete data. For each of them, we generated nine types of incomplete datasets that include 10%, 30%, or 50% of missing data using either a Missing Completely at Random, a Missing at Random, or a Missing Not at Random missingness mechanism. Our results show that Copy Mean has a great effectiveness, exceeding or equaling the performance of other methods in almost all configurations. The effectiveness of linear interpolation is highly data-dependent. The Last Occurrence Carried Forward method is strongly discouraged.
文摘This study pursues the objective of analyzing and verifying the knowledge of the agents of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique/ISP-Bukavu (TTC = Teachers’ training College) in relation to the practical flaws resulting from the lack of knowledge of the observable rules in information system security. In a clearer way, it aims to verify the level of knowledge of the vulnerabilities, to verify the level of use of the antivirus software, to analyze the frequency of use of Windows update, the use of an anti-spyware software as well as a firewall software on the computer. Through a survey conducted on a sample of 100 agents of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique/ISP-Bukavu (TTC = Teachers’ training College), the results revealed that 48% of the sample has no knowledge on computer vulnerabilities;for the use of antivirus software: 47% do not use the antivirus;for Windows update: 29% never update the Windows operating system;for anti-spyware: 48% never use;for the firewall: 50% are not informed. In fine, our results proposed a protection model VMAUSP (Vulnerability Measurability Measures Antivirus, Update, Spyware and Firewall) to users based on the behavioral approach, learning how the model works.
文摘Problem: Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates of HIV seroprevalence in the world. In 2001 only 4%of women and children in need of services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV were receiving them. Design: Pilot implementation of the first programme for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in rural Zimbabwe. Setting: 120 bed district hospital in Buhera district (285 000 inhabitants), Manicaland, Zimbabwe. Key measures for improvement: Programme uptake indicators monitored for 18 months; impact of policy evaluated by assessing upscaling of programme. Strategies for change: Voluntary counselling and testing services for HIV were provided in the hospital antenatal clinic. Women identified as HIV positive and informed of their serostatus and their newborn were offered a single dose antiretroviral treatment of nevirapine; motherchild pairs were followed up through routine health services. Nursing staff and social workers were trained, and community mobilisation was conducted. Effects of change: No services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV were available at baseline. Within 18 months, 2298 pregnant women had received pretest counselling, and the acceptance of HIV testing reached 93.0%. Of all 2137 women who had an HIV test, 1588 (74.3%) returned to collect their result; 326 of the 437 HIV positive women diagnosed had posttest counselling, and 104 (24%) motherchild pairs received nevirapine prophylaxis. Lessons learnt: Minimum staffing, an enhanced training programme, and involvement of district health authorities are needed for the implementation and successful integration of services for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. Voluntary counselling and testing services are important entry points for HIV prevention and care and for referral to community networks and medical HIV care services. A district approach is critical to extend programmes for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in rural settings. The lessons learnt from this pilot programme have contributed to the design of the national expansion strategy for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in Zimbabwe.
