Provision of Preconception Care by Midwives, Nurses and Doctors at Ndola Teaching Hospital in Ndola District, Zambia

Background: The goal of preconception care is to improve the outcome of a mother’s pregnancy and childbirth. Nevertheless, in most developing nations;Zambia included, there are still issues with implementation of preconception care. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish the provision of preconception care by midwives, nurses and doctors at Ndola Teaching Hospital in Zambia. Methods: A concurrent embedded mixed methodology utilising a descriptive explorative study design, where 107 respondents were randomly selected using the lottery technique for quantitative part and two focused group discussions for qualitative part of the study was used. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data and a focus group discussion guide was used for the focus group discussions. Statistical Package of Social Sciences version 26 with significance set at 0.05 and at 95% confidence level and thematic analysis were used for data analysis. Results: 75% of the respondents in this study were not providing preconception care and only 25% of respondents were providing preconception care;however, this was provided randomly because there were no guidelines to follow. Among the respondents, 81.3% had medium knowledge, 70.1% had good practices and 92.5% had positive attitudes towards preconception care. Further analysis showed that the association between preconception care and knowledge, practices and attitudes was not statistically significant (p = values 0.336;0.344;1.000 respectively). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that participants with high knowledge were five times more likely to provide preconception care (OR = 5.00, CI = 0.42 - 59.7, P = 0.203). Generally, all the participants acknowledged that preconception care was an important package that could prevent maternal and child morbidities and mortalities. Conclusions: The study revealed that most of the respondents were not providing preconception care. Provision of preconception was done by a small fraction of the respondents and it was done in an unorderly manner due to lack of set standards and guidelines. Despite medium levels of knowledge and generally good practices and positive attitudes towards preconception care, its random provision indicates a need for established standards to enhance maternal and child health outcomes.

Impact of Mandatory Provisions on the Validity of Juristic Acts: A Path for Legal Policy Analysis

Contrary to the approach in judicial practice,Paragraph 1,Article 153,of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China,as a rule of invalidity for violating mandatory provisions,does not adopt a dichotomy towards mandatory provisions with effectiveness and administrative characteristics,yet it maintains the legislative philosophy of differentiation.It leaves unspecified whether mandatory provisions that do not explicitly render a juristic act invalid impact the act’s validity,entrusting this determination to the discretion of judges on a case-by-case basis.When judges,under the authority of Paragraph 1,Article 153 of the Civil Code,explore the normative intent of mandatory provisions to assess their effect on the validity of juristic acts,they should engage in legal policy analysis centered on consequence-based argumentation to overcome the limitations of norm typological analysis.This analysis employs a reasoning model predicated on the normative purpose,utilizing a consequencefocused interpretative approach for formulating and arguing propositions of rules applicable to pending cases,thereby arriving at case-specific conclusions.Since the invalidation of juristic acts serves as an auxiliary regulatory tool for the state economy and society,a consequence-oriented interpretation needs to be based on the idea of mutual instrumentalization of public and private laws.This entails predicting the outcomes of negating the validity of a juristic act in industrial regulatory scenarios and assessing these outcomes within the framework of public and private regulatory instruments.

Provisioning Services与XenApp联合组建局域网应用环境的研究

Citrix公司推出的基于应用流技术的Provisioning Services软件可以实现客户端通过PXE技术获取服务端采用VDisk磁盘存放的操作系统镜像文件,实现无盘启动;而同公司的基于应用虚拟化技术的XenApp软件则可以实现瘦客户端对服务器端所发布程序的访问。将两者相互结合来组建局域网应用环境,不但可以节省软硬件成本,而且对局域网络环境的管理也变得更加轻松和安全。此外还可以指定客户端可运行的应用程序,对服务器端的访问也不仅限于局域网内部。

Joint optimization of maintenance inspection and spare provisioning for aircraft deteriorating parts

With the wide application of condition based maintenance(CBM) in aircraft maintenance practice, the joint optimization of maintenance and inventory management, which can take full advantage of CBM and reduce the aircraft operational cost, is receiving increasing attention. In order to optimize the inspection interval, maintenance decision and spare provisioning together for aircraft deteriorating parts, firstly, a joint inventory management strategy is presented, then, a joint optimization of maintenance inspection and spare provisioning for aircraft parts subject to the Wiener degradation process is proposed based on the strategy.Secondly, a combination of the genetic algorithm(GA) and the Monte Carol method is developed to minimize the total cost rate.Finally, a case study is conducted and the proposed joint optimization model is compared with the existing optimization model and the airline real case. The results demonstrate that the proposed model is more beneficial and effective. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of the proposed model shows that the lead time has higher influence on the optimal results than the urgent order cost and the corrective maintenance cost, which is consistent with the actual situation of aircraft maintenance practices and inventory management.

Adaptive Service Provisioning for Mobile Edge Cloud

A mobile edge cloud provides a platform to accommodate the offloaded traffic workload generated by mobile devices.It can significantly reduce the access delay for mobile application users.However,the high user mobility brings significant challenges to the service provisioning for mobile users,especially to delay-sensitive mobile applications.With the objective to maximize a profit,which positively associates with the overall admitted traffic served by the local edge cloud,and negatively associates with the access delay as well as virtual machine migration delay,we study a fundamental problem in this paper:how to update the service provisioning solution for a given group of mobile users.Such a profit-maximization problem is formulated as a nonlinear integer linear programming and linearized by absolute value manipulation techniques.Then,we propose a framework of heuristic algorithms to solve this Nondeterministic Polynomial(NP)-hard problem.The numerical simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the devised algorithms.Some useful summaries are concluded via the analysis of evaluation results.

Forest soil conservation based on eco-service provision unit method and its value in Anji County,Huzhou,Zhejiang,China

We propose an eco-service provision unit method for estimating the benefit and spatial differences of forests in controlling soil erosion.A total of 197 eco-service provision units were grouped on 1424.43 km2 of forest according to differences in vegetation,slope,soil,and rainfall.The amount of soil conservation and its economic value were estimated.The forests in Anji County prevent4.08 9 105 tons of soil from eroding annually,thereby avoiding 1.36 9 104 tons of nutrient loss（on-site cost） and preventing 149 tons of nutritive elements from entering water systems（off-site cost）.From an economic perspective,the soil nutrient conservation in the forests of Anji County generated an annual benefit of 43.37 million RMB（Chinese Currency,6.20 RMB = US$1）.On average,each hectare of ecological forest contributed up to 436 RMB annually because of soil conservation.Ecological complexes with higher rainfall intensity,such as broadleaf forest and red soil on slope gradients [25°,contributed the highest soil conservation benefits.This study identified and quantified the dominant contributors and magnitudes of soil conservation provided by forests.This information can benefit decision making regarding differentiated ecological compensation policies.

The Revision of Aluminum-containing Food Additive Provisions in China

The aim of this study was to revise the provisions for aluminum-containing food additives in GB 2760-2011 （The National Food Safety Standard for Use of Food Additives）, in order to reduce aluminum exposure among the Chinese population. According to the latest risk assessment results of JECFA and China on aluminum and the actual use of aluminum-containing food additives in certain products, the aluminum-containing food additive-related provisions in GB 2760-2011 were revised. Those revisions included narrowing down the applicable food categories and adjusting the maximum use level of aluminum potassium sulfate and aluminum ammonium sulfate, repealing nine aluminum-containing food additives in puffed food and repealing the use of sodium aluminum phosphate, sodium aluminosilicate and starch aluminum octenylsuccinate in all food.

The Pricing of Convertible Bonds with a Call Provision

This paper deals with the pricing of convertible bond with call provision based on the traditional B-S formula. By applying the principle of no arbitrage, the partial differential equation for the bond is established with identified boundary conditions, which solution results in the closed form of the pricing formula.

COVID-19:Effect on gastroenterology and hepatology service provision and training:Lessons learnt and planning for the future

In late 2019,reports arose of a new respiratory disease in China,identified as a novel coronavirus,severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.The World Health Organisation named the disease caused by the virus‘coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)’.It was declared a pandemic in early 2020,after the disease rapidly spread across the world.COVID-19 has not only resulted in substantial morbidity and mortality but also significantly impacted healthcare service provision and training across all medical specialties with gastroenterology and Hepatology services being no exception.Internationally,most,if not all‘nonurgent’services have been placed on hold during surges of infections.As a result there have been delayed diagnoses,procedures,and surgeries which will undoubtedly result in increased morbidity and mortality.Outpatient services have been converted to remote consultations where possible in many countries.Trainees have been redeployed to help care for COVID-19 patients in other settings,resulting in disruption to their training-particularly endoscopy and outpatient clinics.This has led to significant anxiety amongst trainees,and risks prolongation of training.It is of the utmost importance to develop strategies that continue to support COVID-19-related service provision,whilst also supporting existing and future gastroenterology and Hepatology services and training.Changes to healthcare provision during the pandemic have generated new and improved frameworks of service and training delivery,which can be adopted in the post-COVID-19 world,leading to enhanced patient care.

Spatial matching and flow in supply and demand of water provision services: A case study in Xiangjiang River Basin

Global climate change and increased human consumption have aggravated the uneven spatiotemporal distribution of watershed water resources, affecting the water provision supply and demand state. However, this problem has often been ignored. The present study used the Xiangjiang River basin(XRB) as the study area, and the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs(InVEST) model, demand quantification model,supply–demand ratio, and water flow formula were applied to explore the spatial heterogeneity, flow, and equilibrium between water supply and demand. The results demonstrated significant spatial heterogeneity in the upstream, midstream, and downstream regions.The areas of water shortage were mainly located the downstream of the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration, and the Hengyang basin was the most scarcity area. Affected by terrain gradients and human needs, water flow varied from-16.33 × 10^(8) m^(3) to 13.69 × 10^(8) m^(3)from the upstream to the downstream area, which provided a possibility to reduce spatial heterogeneity. In the future, measures such as strengthening water resource system control,sponge city construction, and dynamic monitoring technology should be taken to balance the supply and demand of water in different river sections of the basin. This study can provide references for regulating water resources allocation in different reaches of the basin.

PacketCable下eUE的安全Provisioning机制

本文介绍了一种基于Packet Cable2.0的eUE安全Provisioning过程和机制。在这种机制下,设计了一种E-UE的Provisioning架构,并详细定义了该架构下eUE与各个逻辑功能组件之间的交互过程。出于安全性的考虑,该机制通过加入KDC服务器来保证系统内部各组件之间安全的交互认证过程,有效地防止网络中可能出现的信息泄露、篡改和劫取等安全威胁,实现PacketCable下eUE的安全Provisoning过程。

Space- and time-efficient approach for virtual machine provisioning

As a new promising paradigm, cloud computing can make good use of economics of scale and elastically deliver almost any IT related services on demand. Nevertheless, one of the key problems remaining in cloud computing is related to virtual machine images, which require a great amount of space/time to reposit/provision, especially with diverse requests from thousands of users simultaneously. In this paper, by using the splitting and eliminating redundant data techniques, a space and time efficient approach for virtual machines is proposed. The experiments demonstrate that, compared with existing solutions, our approach can conserve more disk space and speed up the provisioning of virtual machines.

Switching between multiplexing and diversity in MIMO systems with QoS provisioning

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems can significantly improve the spectrum efficiency or transmission reliability through spatial multiplexing or diversity respectively.Most of previous works mainly have focused on the multiplexing-diversity tradeoff or switching between multiplexing and diversity without considering the property of heterogeneous QoS provisioning.In this paper,switching between multiplexing and diversity in MIMO system with the heterogeneous QoS provisioning is studied.Firstly the QoS provisioning for users are classified into two classes:users with real time service requirement and users with non-real time service requirement respectively.Then based on the heterogeneous QoS Provisioning for users,two different switching criterions are proposed,switching based on the Euclidean distance for users with real time service to minimize the probability of symbol error and capacity-based switching criterion for users with non-real time service to maximize the transmission capacity respectively.Finally,numerical simulation results are illustrated to demonstrate the performance of proposed scheme.

CMTS Provision系统设计

伴随广电宽带业务的发展,通过使用Cable Modem作为接入方式的互联网用户不断增多;需要解决对宽带用户CM认证,及时自动的实现对CM访问网络的控制、向用户提供灵活多样的业务以及对多业务的扩展支持等问题。CMTS Provision系统提供了一个以策略为基础的网络应用,服务商及企业用户能更好的管理它,它使用了其独特的性能,与其他的网络基础软件及商业应用能更好的结合在一起。

Media Independent Handover Scheme with QoS Provision across UMTS and WiMAX Networks

The rapid growth and innovation of the various mobile communication technologies have caused a change in the paradigm of internet access. Wireless technologies such as WiMAX, Wi-Fi and UMTS/LTE networks have shown great potential in dominating the wireless access markets. The existence of various access technologies requires a means for seamless internetworking to provide anywhere, anytime services without interruption in the ongoing session, especially in multimedia applications with rigid Quality of Services(QoS) requirements. The IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover (MIH) working group was formed to develop a set of mechanisms under a standard framework with the capability to support migration of mobile users across heterogeneous networks. Therefore, the implementation of handover is extremely important in the heterogeneous network environment. In order to guarantee various QoS requirements during handover execution especially in multimedia applications, in this paper we propose a novel MIH-based capacity estimation algorithm to execute handover with QoS provision supporting both horizontal and vertical handovers across UMTS and WiMAX networks. Simulation shows that the proposed mechanism achieves lower call dropping rate (highest approximate 3%) and higher system throughput (average 92%) than the basic handover method does.

A Composite Service Provision Method Based on Novel Node Model in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Composite service provision in mobile ad hoc networks encounters great challenges and its success rate is not satisfactory because the nodes' locations are dynamic and the nodes maybe unavailable at any time.Composite service is built through the service composition.In mobile ad hoc networks,the factors influencing the success rate of service composition are mainly the number of nodes and the time spent for the composition.The node's failure probability is proportional to the length of time the node exist in the networks.In order to improve the success rate of service composition,we take several measures.First,we split the service requirement into several segments and cluster the nodes,so that the nodes' waiting time for service composition can be reduced.Second,we propose a new node model of "one node contains multiple services" in mobile ad hoc networks.Using this type of nodes model,the number of nodes required for service composition can be reduced.These means can increase the success rate of service composition.

Prolonged milk provisioning and extended maternal care in the milking spider Toxeus magnus: biological implications and questions unresolved

Prolonged milk provisioning and extended parental care for nutritionally independent offspring, previously considered to only co-occur in long-lived mammals (Clutton-Brock, 1991;Royle et al., 2012), were recently reported in the reproduction of the milking spider, Toxeus magnus (Chen et al. 2018). Newly hatched T. magnus spiderlings require 53 days to develop to maturity, with an average adult body length of 6.6 mm.

Enhanced Cloud Service Provisioning for Social Networks

In the era of cloud computing and social networks prosperity, new requirements rise up for cloud services that meet social network’s needs. Several cloud service providers deliver social network services for cloud services users. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework to pick the best cloud service providers from group of available providers based on many Quality-of-Service (“QoS”) criteria attributes in order to enhance efficiency, accuracy and service provisioning. This paper also aims to provide a classification for QoS criteria attributes, which is divided into five main attributes and sub-attributes, helping in enhancing ranking process in the provided framework.

Cloud Service Provisioning Based on Peer-to-Peer Network for Flexible Service Sharing and Discovery

In this paper, we present an approach to establish efficient and scalable service provisioning in the cloud environment using P2P-based infrastructure for storing, sharing and discovering services. Unlike most other P2P-based approaches, it allows flexible search queries, since all of them are executed against internal database presenting at each overlay node. Various issues concerning using this approach in the cloud environment, such as load-balancing, queuing, dealing with skewed data and dynamic attributes, are addressed in the paper. The infrastructure proposed in the paper can serve as a base for creating robust, scalable and reliable cloud systems, able to fulfill client’s QoS requirements, and at the same time introduce more efficient utilization of resources to the cloud provider.

Exploring Hits-Based Content Provisioning Mechanism in Content-Centric Networking

In-network caching and Interest packets aggregation are two important features of Content-Centric Networking(CCN).CCN routers can directly respond to the Interest request by Content Store(CS)and aggregate the same Interest packets by Pending Interest Table(PIT).In this way,most popular content requests will not reach the origin content server.Thus,content providers will be unaware of the actual usages of their contents in network.This new network paradigm presents content providers with unprecedented challenge.It will bring a great impact on existing mature business model of content providers,such as advertising revenue model based on hits amount.To leverage the advantages of CCN and the realistic business needs of content providers,we explore the hits-based content provisioning mechanism in CCN.The proposed approaches can avoid the unprecedented impact on content providers' existing business model and promote content providers to embrace the real deployment of CCN network.