Version Of Implementation Research Articles

Men’s voices on Long-acting Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (LA PrEP) delivery modalities: Acceptability and Preferences among Cis-gender men and men who have sex with men in South Africa

Introduction: In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), cisgender men—in particular men who have sex with women (MSW) and, to a lesser degree, men who have sex with men (MSM)—are often under-represented in HIV prevention research, despite their own HIV risk and role in transmission cycles. As HIV prevention research on long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis (LA PrEP) options expands in SSA, it is essential to engage these populations to ensure their acceptability. We investigated perceptions of implants and intramuscular injectables as LA PrEP delivery among MSW and MSM. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted between October 2020 and March 2021with 40 MSW (n=20) and MSM (n=20), aged 18-35 years, self-reported as HIV-negative, sexually-active, and residing in resource-restricted communities in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. We explored factors influencing LA PrEP attitudes. Data analysis followed a thematic framework approach. Results: MSW and MSM found LA PrEP administration modes more acceptable than daily oral PrEP because they offered longer-lasting protection while reducing frequent clinic visits for refills. MSW voiced hesitancy around the use of ‘foreign products’, fearing infertility and congenital-disabilities in their future children. Both subgroups acknowledged the convenience of implants with long-dosing duration, but injections were deemed to be more discreet and familiar. Both groups described Implant use as potentially stigmatizing, with a greater chance of causing tissue scarring from insertion and removal procedures. Conclusions: Evidence relating to men’s engagement in HIV prevention and acceptable modalities of HIV prevention is limited. We found that both groups were enthusiastic about LA PrEP, informing the development of our subsequent clinical study to provide further insight into using placebo versions of LA PrEP and future implementation of LA PrEP options. One-Sentence Summary: LA PrEP acceptability and preference among men

Многофункциональный автоматизированный измерительный стенд для задач геодезии и навигации

The authors present a development of a universal platform for conducting dynamic geodesic measurements on various carriers. The aim of the research was to create an autonomous system which allows solving the said tasks when installed on a wide range of moving carriers. To achieve this goal, a multifunctional automated measuring stand (MAMS) was designed. The requirements for the system are described in detail, including mechanical integrity, suitability for installation on various types of vehicles platforms, autonomous operation for at least 4 hours, remote control, redundancy of measurements, possibility of installing additional test and auxiliary equipment etc. We describe various prototypes of the system being developed. They were multiple implementations in the form of creating three mock-ups and two functional samples of the MAMS. The first was used to solve its target problems, and the second one provided additional geometric conditions and was an improved version of the first implementation. As a result, the final configuration and design were determined, allowing GNSS, inertial and other measurements when installed on various types of mobile carriers. The process of creating is also shown; the outcome was an autonomous system that allows GNSS, inertial and other measurements to be made under the described conditions. Finally, it is noted that MAMS has proven itself as an effective tool for dynamic geodetic measurements on various media and can be used to solve a wide range of applied and scientific tasks. The authors plan to show the details of the system development from the technical, methodological and practical aspects in depth in the following articles

A DAQ system with low-dead-time, high-precision TDC for APD detection efficiency calibration

Correlated photon calibration based on spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) provides a highly precise means to calibrate the detection efficiency of avalanche photodiode (APD). During the calibration process of detection efficiency via SPDC, precise measurement of the arrival time of correlated photons and accurate photon counting are essential. To achieve this goal, a data acquisition (DAQ) system with low-dead-time, high-resolution Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) was designed in this paper. This TDC is designed based on tapped delay line (TDL), which is implemented on Xilinx Kintex-7 series field programmable gate array (FPGA). This TDC can accurately measure the time of arrival of input signals. Upon arrival of a photon signal, the TDC rapidly generates a timestamp to record the arrival time of the photon signal. Utilizing these timestamps, time delay and accurate measurements of time intervals can be achieved. The specially designed TDC input stage structure and encoding algorithm enable the alternating propagation and sampling of `01' and `10' transitions on TDL. Coupled with a pipelined architecture, the TDC's dead time is close to one clock cycle, which is 2.33 ns in the current implementation version. The structure of mode recognition and triggering ensures that the TDC can correctly calibrate time measurements and count photon counts. Experimental results show that the TDC achieves an RMS precision of better than 11.08 ps, and this measurement precision is maintained over long time intervals (0–10 us). The reliability of this DAQ for photon counting has been verified through standard signal sources.

ELECTRONIC CRIMINAL CASE: FOREIGN EXPERIENCE AND PROSPECTS FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN RUSSIAN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The rapid development of science and technology changes people’s lives every day. Legal regulation and the sphere of law enforcement should promptly adapt to these changes, especially through creation of new ways of information exchange. The article examines the possibilities of introducing electronic criminal case technology into the Russian criminal process. The concept of criminal case materials as one of the central procedural documents is formulated, and the main approaches of scientists to defining its digital form are considered. The experience of foreign countries in using information technologies in the implementation of criminal proceedings is analyzed. The most successful, according to the authors, version of the idea implementation can be found in Italy, where a system of exchange and accumulation of information between the court, preliminary investigation bodies and the prosecutor’s office has been created. For the Russian legal field, the technology of conducting criminal cases using digital technologies is still at the concept stage, with respect to which it is impossible to draw a conclusion about the unambiguous need and form of possible implementation. At the same time, the article concludes that the corresponding software can provide a huge number of opportunities for persons participating in the case. The supposed advantages include simplification of the procedure for storing materials, ensuring equal access to them by the prosecution, defense and the court, and reducing the time frame for office work. However, the legislator’s passive position regarding this project can be explained by the disproportionate amount of resources that will be required for its implementation.

Implementing a perioperative medicine for older people undergoing surgery (POPS) service: A guide for clinical leaders.

This study aimed to translate previous implementation science research describing the implementation of perioperative medicine for older people undergoing surgery (POPS) services into a format that is comprehensible and relevant to clinical leaders contemplating implementing a POPS service. We conducted a multistage expert end-user review process to design a POPS implementation guide. Our expert research team created a draft POPS service implementation guide using previous implementation science research that described the core elements and implementation of a POPS service. Next, we invited multidisciplinary (allied health, anaesthetics, geriatric medicine, nursing and surgery) clinical leaders in perioperative medicine (n = 12) from five contextually different health services to review the guide. These clinical leaders then participated in two rounds of review and refinement of the implementation guide. The first draft of the POPS service implementation guide was reviewed by clinical leaders (n = 4) with participants querying implementation science-based language and concepts, the format of the guide and its practical use. We revised the guide accordingly, and the next draft was reviewed by the second group of clinical leaders (n = 8). Feedback from the second group review was supportive of the guide's comprehensibility and relevance, and only minor changes were made to the final version of the POPS service implementation guide. We used an implementation science-based approach to create a POPS service implementation guide that is comprehensible and relevant to clinical leaders in perioperative care. The next steps are to use the guide and assess its utility to support implementation of a POPS service.

Multiwyszukiwarka Primo w wybranych bibliotekach polskich – analiza funkcjonalności

The article presents the characteristics of the PRIMO VE interface in terms of its functionality. Its features, differences and similarities that occur in the examined libraries were discussed, depending on the types of libraries, the library system in use, and the method of implementation. The study covered twenty different types of libraries that implemented the PRIMO multi-search engine. The impact of resources and metadata on their presentation in the form of facets/filters and their impact on search efficiency was examined. The number of ranges used in libraries, information about indexed resources, detailed document types, and additional functions that allow to narrow searches affect the functionality of the system. The conducted queries showed a connection between online resources and the number of obtained results, as well as the impossibility of precise narrowing down by facets caused by the quality and diversity of metadata. The aim of the study was to learn the functionality of the multi-search engine depending on the system version, library type, and method of implementation in the library. The following research methods and tools were used in the study: literature review, cognitive journey, method of analysis and comparison of the examined library websites.

SignalingProfiler 2.0 a network-based approach to bridge multi-omics data to phenotypic hallmarks

Unraveling how cellular signaling is remodeled upon perturbation is crucial for understanding disease mechanisms and identifying potential drug targets. In this pursuit, computational tools generating mechanistic hypotheses from multi-omics data have invaluable potential. Here, we present a newly implemented version (2.0) of SignalingProfiler, a multi-step pipeline to draw mechanistic hypotheses on the signaling events impacting cellular phenotypes. SignalingProfiler 2.0 derives context-specific signaling networks by integrating proteogenomic data with the prior knowledge-causal network. This is a freely accessible and flexible tool that incorporates statistical, footprint-based, and graph algorithms to accelerate the integration and interpretation of multi-omics data. Through a benchmarking process on three proof-of-concept studies, we demonstrate the tool’s ability to generate hierarchical mechanistic networks recapitulating novel and known perturbed signaling and phenotypic outcomes, in both human and mice contexts. In summary, SignalingProfiler 2.0 addresses the emergent need to derive biologically relevant information from complex multi-omics data by extracting interpretable networks.

Convergence of hybrid slice sampling via spectral gap

AbstractIt is known that the simple slice sampler has robust convergence properties; however, the class of problems where it can be implemented is limited. In contrast, we consider hybrid slice samplers which are easily implementable and where another Markov chain approximately samples the uniform distribution on each slice. Under appropriate assumptions on the Markov chain on the slice, we give a lower bound and an upper bound of the spectral gap of the hybrid slice sampler in terms of the spectral gap of the simple slice sampler. An immediate consequence of this is that the spectral gap and geometric ergodicity of the hybrid slice sampler can be concluded from the spectral gap and geometric ergodicity of the simple version, which is very well understood. These results indicate that robustness properties of the simple slice sampler are inherited by (appropriately designed) easily implementable hybrid versions. We apply the developed theory and analyze a number of specific algorithms, such as the stepping-out shrinkage slice sampling, hit-and-run slice sampling on a class of multivariate targets, and an easily implementable combination of both procedures on multidimensional bimodal densities.

Students from the “Non-Formal Education” Studies in the Conditions of the Internship Pre-Graduate Practice – Preparation, Introduction, Defense

The article focuses the attention of a research team on the internship pre- graduate practice in Non-Formal Education. The importance of the problem, the framework of the practical training in the specialty, its place and importance, the organization and activities in the direction of the preparation, the introduction of the students and the defence of the pre-graduate practice are presented. Accordingly, a study was conducted with students from the specialty Non-Formal Education and its results are presented. A number of successes of the process in its current version of implementation and some possibilities for its refinement are outlined.

Use of Matrix-Assisted and Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Technology in the Identification of Aeromonas Strains Isolated from Retail Sushi and Sashimi.

The genus Aeromonas includes well-known pathogenic species for fishes and humans that are widely distributed in the aquatic environment and foods. Nowadays, one of the main issues related to wild Aeromonas isolates is their identification at the species level, which is challenging using classical microbiological and biomolecular methods. This study aims to test MALDI-TOF MS technology in the identification of Aeromonas strains isolated from n. 60 retail sushi and sashimi boxes using an implemented version of the SARAMIS software V4.12. A total of 43 certified Aeromonas strains were used to implement the SARAMIS database by importing the spectra obtained from their identification. The original SARAMIS version (V4.12) failed to recognize 62.79% of the certified strains, while the herein-implemented version (V4.12plus) allowed the identification of all the certified strains at least to the genus level with a match of no less than 85%. Regarding the sushi and sashimi samples, Aeromonas spp. was detected in n. 18 (30%) boxes. A total of 127 colonies were identified at the species level, with A. salmonicida detected as the most prevalent species, followed by A. bestiarum and A. caviae. Based on the results of the present study, we could speculate that MALDI-TOF technology could be a useful tool both for the food industry to monitor product contamination and for clinical purposes to make diagnoses effectively and quickly.

The Evolution Mechanism of Correctness for Cyber-Physical System

Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) are widely used in all areas of life. Ensuring the correctness of CPS remains an enduring challenge during its development and design phases. One approach to ascertain the correctness of CPS is behavior equivalence based on bisimulation. However, whether the implementation development process develops in the right direction has an important impact on obtaining the correct system implementation. Especially, the development process of complex CPS often yields a multitude of implementation versions, the correlation among these versions partly signifies the correctness of the development process. This paper formalizes the relationship between the implementation versions and establishes a formal description of the development process progressing in the correct direction, leveraging the concept of a “limit idea.” Initially, we introduce the concept of “limit bisimulation” for CPS systems to delineate implementations acquired during the CPS development process. Specific limit bisimulations are demonstrated to represent distinct scenarios within the development process. Subsequently, the convergence mechanism of implementations is modeled through bisimulation limits, encapsulating the CPS’s specification as the ultimate goal of obtained implementations during the development process. Finally, the congruence property of the bisimulation limit is proved, which accounts for the relation between specification and implementation versions can be decomposed into a refinement hierarchy. The limit theorem of bisimulation in CPS can help the designer and developer of CPS to comprehend the development course better.

The strategic jump-the order effect on winning “The Final Three” in long jump competitions

Abstract The tournament rules for long jump competitions have changed in recent years. Today, only the three athletes with the best jumps from the five initial attempts are qualified to make an additional sixth jump – a format called The Final Three. In the first implemented version of The Final Three, the top athletes sequentially make one final jump, starting with the athlete ranked third place from the initial attempts. The athlete with the longest jump in this sixth attempt wins the competition, irrespective of achieved results in previous attempts. In this study, we analyze the effect of the athletes’ jump order on the probability of winning the competition within this first implemented version of The Final Three. We derive the final’s symmetric subgame perfect equilibrium and compute the corresponding equilibrium winning probabilities, given estimated distributional parameters from the Olympic long jumping final in Tokyo 2021. The modeling of the game is preceded by a development of a stochastic model for the outcome in long jumping. Our results indicate a last mover advantage, albeit small. Our model also reveals the importance of having a low variation in the approach run length and thinking strategically in this tournament format.

NOAA's National Water Model: Advancing operational hydrology through continental‐scale modeling

AbstractThe National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Water Prediction (OWP), in conjunction with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the NWS National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) implemented version 2.1 of the National Water Model (NWM) into operations in April of 2021. As with the initial version implemented in 2016, NWM v2.1 is an hourly cycling analysis and forecast system that provides streamflow guidance for millions of river reaches and other hydrologic information on high‐resolution grids. The NWM provides complementary hydrologic guidance at current NWS river forecast locations and significantly expands guidance coverage and water budget information in underserved locations. It produces a full range of hydrologic fields, which can be leveraged by a broad cross section of stakeholders ranging from the emergency responder and water resource communities, to transportation, energy, recreation and agriculture interests, to other water‐oriented applications in the government, academic and private sectors. Version 2.1 of the NWM represents the fifth major version upgrade and more than doubles simulation skill with respect to hourly streamflow correlation, Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency, and bias reduction, over its original inception in 2016. This paper will discuss the driving factors underpinning the creation of the NWM, provide a brief overview of the model configuration and performance, and discuss future efforts to improve NWM components and services.

Применение нейронной сети в логическом управлении электромеханической системой

In some control and automation systems, logical transformations based on logic algebra equations are performed using software or through electrical circuits assembled on logical elements. This article presents a version of the software implementation of logical control as a result of the operation of a neural network. As an example, control is defined as the transformation of a binary set of one dimension into a set of another dimension, according to a given logical function. The conversion is based on the use of an artificial neural network of feedforward signal propagation. When training a neural network, a backpropagation algorithm is used. The training data uses a set of binary numbers as input and output vectors of the network and a logical function that establishes the relationship between them. The neural network and learning algorithm were created in the Python programming language using standard mathematical packages. After training the neural network with a given degree of accuracy, it is switched to the operating state and an input vector was supplied to the network input. The input vector consisted of a given set of binary numbers. In another variant, the coordinates of the input vector from a set of binary numbers randomly changed both in signal magnitude and duration during the operation period. The results of the operation of a neural network in implementing control in the absence and presence of interference in the input vector of the network are presented. The developed program code can be used in standard industrial controllers, both for the proposed transformation and for other logical transformations when changing the structure of the neural network and applying new training data.

MEASURING THE SMALL LINEAR DISPLACEMENTS BY THE PHASE METHOD

A measuring device with a differential capacitive measuring transducer (CMT) designed to measure small linear displacements is considered. The CMT has a plane-parallel design of the plates, the natural input value is the change in the gap between the plates. In the measuring circuit (MC), model resistors with the same resistance are connected in series with the sensitive elements of the CMT. The voltage dividers formed by these connections are powered by counter currents of a high-frequency sinusoidal voltage generator. An informative measurement parameter is the phase shift angle between the two output voltages of the MC. These voltages are supplied to the analog inputs of the programmable microcontroller (PMC). The PMC controls the measurement process, measures the specified phase shift angle and determines the measured displacement. Thanks to the used algorithm for processing the measurement results, a ratiometric output signal is obtained to determine the measured displacement. This ensures high metrological characteristics of the meter. The theory of the meter's functioning, the features of the choice of nodes, and the method of calculating the parameters of the MC elements are described. A methodology for the theoretical study of measurement errors has been developed, and the results of their calculation for the implemented version of the meter are presented. It is substantiated that the relative measurement error of the developed device for small linear displacements does not exceed 0.065%. Ensuring high measurement accuracy is also due to the use of phase signals instead of potential-current signals.

Trajectory Planning for Hopping Rover on Small Bodies Under Pre-Collision Attitude Adjustment Modulation

A novel pre-collision attitude adjustment (PCAA) modulation based on angular velocity and quaternions control is developed to more controllable and reliably adjust the non-spherical hopping rover's trajectory on small bodies. This corresponds to a hopping trajectory planning (HTP) framework that addresses inherent technical challenges, including attitude-trajectory coupled features, hard-to-depicting near-truth gravity and continues dynamical contact models, difficult-to-predetermine collision times with the small bodies’ surface, and complex judgments regarding whether the period of attitude adjustment is sufficient in current hops. Two main contributions are proposed, focusing on modeling and planning. To achieve a more realistic modeling of the rover's motion, its attitude-trajectory coupling dynamic model is researched, including a ground-truth irregular gravity model and continuous dynamical contact model. Additionally, a collision detection method based on the local surface smoothing technique is proposed for rapid and exact switching between the ballistic and contact motions for the subsequent planning purpose. On the other hand, redundancy planning and binary event-trigger techniques are combined for handling unpredictable available dimensions of optimization variables of PCAA-based HTP, which arise from the indeterminate scale of collision times and potential deficiency in ballistic flight time required for completing attitude maneuvers. Specifically, the solution space is preset to guarantee the unchanging dimensions of the design variables, which are activated or deactivated by coupling binary event variables for each dimension. These newly introduced events are triggered by comparing the realistic rebound time of the current hop with the necessary time for attitude maneuver, which is accurately computed by designing a first-order sliding mode controller. This approach enables an equivalent and easily implementable version of the problem to be obtained. Logically and numerically, the application of PCAA modulation is found to significantly enlarge or contract the area of the reachable region of the hopping rover and contribute to improving the convergence and reducing the relative final position error of the hopping trajectory planning problem.

A Pragmatic Theory of Computational Artefacts

AbstractSome computational phenomena rely essentially on pragmatic considerations, and seem to undermine the independence of the specification from the implementation. These include software development, deviant uses, esoteric languages and recent data-driven applications. To account for them, the interaction between pragmatics, epistemology and ontology in computational artefacts seems essential, indicating the need to recover the role of the language metaphor. We propose a User Levels (ULs) structure as a pragmatic complement to the Levels of Abstraction (LoAs)-based structure defining the ontology and epistemology of computational artefacts. ULs identify a flexible hierarchy in which users bear their own semantic and normative requirements, possibly competing with the logical specification. We formulate a notion of computational act intended in its pragmatic sense, alongside pragmatic versions of implementation and correctness.

Dental students' perceptions of simultaneous live and online OSCEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a valid, reliable and reproducible assessment method traditionally carried out as a live examination but recently also provided online. The aim was to compare any differences in the perceptions of dental students participating in online and live OSCE using mixed methods. All Finnish fourth-year undergraduate dental students (n = 172) attended the exam in April 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the official administrative restrictions in teaching in universities still existed in April 2021. By the time of the national OSCE, the pandemic situation varied in different parts of the country. Therefore, two of the universities conducted a live OSCE and two an online version of the OSCE. Data were collected after the OSCE using a voluntary anonymous electronic questionnaire with multiple-choice and open-ended questions (response rate 58%). Differences between the OSCE versions were analysed using the Mann-Whitney U test and open answers with qualitative content analysis. The students considered both types of OSCE good in general. The main differences were found concerned adequate time allocation and overall technical implementation, in favour of the live OSCE. While a qualitative analysis revealed exam anxiety as the most often mentioned negative issue, overall, comments were positive. Variation in the assessments between different question entities seemed to be wider than between the implemented OSCE versions. Time management in the OSCE should be further developed by managing the assignment of tasks.

Method of encryption in the MST3 cryptosystem based on Automorphisms group of Suzuki's functional field

This article presents a new encryption method based on the group of automorphisms of Suzuki's functional field, which enhances the security level of the existing MST3 cryptosystem. This approach is a response to the progress in developing powerful quantum computers, which can threaten the security of many public-key encryption systems, particularly those based on factorization and discrete logarithm problems, such as RSA or ECC. Using non-commutative groups to create quantum-resistant cryptosystems has been a known approach over the last two decades. The unsolvable word problem, proposed by Wagner and Magyarik, applied in the realm of permutation groups, is key to the development of cryptosystems. Logarithmic signatures, introduced by Magliveras, represent a unique type of factorization suitable for finite groups. The latest version of such implementation, known as MST3, is based on the Suzuki group. In 2008, Magliveras presented the LS limit of transitivity for the MST3 cryptosystem. Later, Svaba proposed an improved version of the cryptosystem eMST3 with enhanced protective features, including secret homomorphic covering. In 2018, T. van Trung suggested the application of the MST3 approach using strong aperiodic logarithmic signatures for Abelian p-groups. Kong and his colleagues conducted an in-depth analysis of MST3 and noted that due to the lack of publications on the quantum vulnerability of this algorithm, it can be considered as a potential candidate for use in the post-quantum era. One of the key ideas is to increase encryption efficiency by optimizing computational resources, particularly through reducing the size of the key space. This method is applied to the calculations of logarithmic signatures within the group. It was implemented over finite fields of small sizes.

Loop Aborts Strike Back: Defeating Fault Countermeasures in Lattice Signatures with ILP

At SAC 2016, Espitau et al. presented a loop-abort fault attack against lattice-based signature schemes following the Fiat–Shamir with aborts paradigm. Their attack recovered the signing key by injecting faults in the sampling of the commitment vector (also called masking vector) y, leaving its coefficients at their initial zero value. As possible countermeasures, they proposed to carry out the sampling of the coefficients of y in shuffled order, or to ensure that the masking polynomials in y are not of low degree. In this paper, we show that both of these countermeasures are insufficient. We demonstrate a new loop-abort fault injection attack against Fiat–Shamir with aborts lattice-based signatures that can recover the secret key from faulty signatures even when the proposed countermeasures are implemented. The key idea of our attack is that faulted signatures give rise to a noisy linear system of equations, which can be solved using integer linear programming. We present an integer linear program that recovers the secret key efficiently in practice, and validate the efficacy of our attack by conducting a practical end-to-end attack against a shuffled version of the Dilithium reference implementation, mounted on an ARM Cortex M4. We achieve a full (equivalent) key recovery in under 3 minutes total execution time (including signature generation), using only 5 faulted signatures. In addition, we conduct extensive theoretical simulations of the attack against Dilithium. We find that our method can achieve key recovery in under 5 minutes given a (sufficiently large) set of signatures where just one of the coefficients of y is zeroed out (or left at its initial value of zero). Furthermore, we find that our attack works against all security levels of Dilithium. Our attack shows that protecting Fiat–Shamir with aborts lattice-based signatures against fault injection attacks cannot be achieved using the simple countermeasures proposed by Espitau et al. and likely requires significantly more expensive countermeasures.