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Paolo Beck-Peccoz,1 Charlotte Höybye,2 Suat Simsek,3 Günter Stalla,4 Robert D Murray,5 Altaher Esmael,6 Dragan Urosevic,7 Anca Boldea,6 Markus Zabransky6 1Fondazione Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy; 2Department of Endocrinology and Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; 3Department of Internal Medicine/Endocrinology, Northwest Clinics, Alkmaar and Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location VUmc, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 4Medicover Neuroendocrinology and Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik IV, Klinikum der Universität, Munich, Germany; 5Leeds Centre for Diabetes & Endocrinology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, UK; 6HEXAL AG (a Sandoz company), Holzkirchen, Germany; 7Novartis Sandoz Biopharmaceutical AG, c/o HEXAL AG, Basel, SwitzerlandCorrespondence: Paolo Beck-Peccoz, Fondazione Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Via Pietro Custodi 1, Milan, 20136, Italy, Tel +39 3357073239, Email paolo.beckpeccoz@unimi.itPurpose: Long-term studies are needed to investigate the safety of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) for the treatment of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in routine practice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of biosimilar rhGH (somatropin; Omnitrope®) in adults with GHD.Methods: PAtients TReated with Omnitrope (PATRO) Adults was a post-marketing surveillance study conducted across Europe. The primary objective was the safety of biosimilar rhGH in adults, particularly the occurrence of glucose intolerance or diabetes mellitus and malignancies. All adverse events (AEs) were recorded throughout treatment. Treatment effectiveness was a secondary objective.Results: By December 2021, 1527 patients (50.3% male) were enrolled from 84 centers in 10 European countries. Most patients had adult-onset GHD (n = 1243; 81.4%) and 771 (50.5%) were rhGH-naïve at study entry. Median (interquartile range) treatment duration was 4.4 (1.90– 7.30) years. Overall, 1181 patients (77.3%) reported 6667 AEs. Treatment-related AEs were reported in 143 patients (9.4%; 216 AEs); arthralgia was most common (n = 24). There were 49 confirmed diabetes mellitus events; 44 in newly diagnosed patients. Overall, 84 malignancies were reported. There were 46 treatment-related serious AEs in 39 patients (2.6%). The most frequently reported treatment-related serious AE was “metabolism and nutrition disorders” (n = 12). In rhGH-naïve patients, an increase in mean insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) standard deviation score (SDS) was observed from – 2.03 at baseline to +0.28 at 5 years. An increase in IGF-1 SDS was also observed in previously treated patients from – 0.71 to +0.35. Body mass index remained stable while blood lipid levels improved from baseline to 5 years.Conclusion: Final data from PATRO Adults confirm that biosimilar rhGH (Omnitrope) is not associated with any unexpected safety signals, with no evidence of increased diabetogenic or carcinogenic risk, and is effective in real-world clinical practice.Plain language summary: Why was the study done?– Growth hormone deficiency is a condition caused by insufficient amounts of growth hormone in the body, which can be treated with daily injections of a replacement growth hormone medicine.– It is important to monitor the safety of long-term treatment with growth hormone, especially regarding the risk of cancer and diabetes.What did the researchers do?– The PATRO Adults study included adult patients with growth hormone deficiency who were treated with a growth hormone medicine called Omnitrope.– The researchers main aim was to evaluate specific safety concerns, including any potential increased risk of cancer and diabetes.What did the researchers find?– A total of 1527 patients were enrolled in the study.– Overall, 143 patients had an adverse reaction that was considered to be related to growth hormone treatment, the most common of which was arthralgia, a type of joint ache, which occurred in 1.6% of patients.– Overall, 17 patients (1.1%) developed diabetes and four patients (0.3%) developed cancer that was suspected as being related to growth hormone treatment.– The risk of developing diabetes and cancer was low and comparable to what has been seen in previous studies in patients treated with growth hormone.What do the results mean?– The safety findings from this study were consistent with the well characterized safety profile of growth hormone treatment in adults with growth hormone deficiency. This supports previous studies showing no evidence of increased risk of cancer or diabetes with growth hormone treatment in adults.Keywords: somatropin, long-term, real-world, European, diabetes, malignancy

The integration of digital health technologies into diabetes management has shown the potential to improve patient outcomes by providing personalized dietary recommendations. This study aims to develop and evaluate the Diabetes-Focused Food Recommender System (DFRS), a system designed to assist individuals with diabetes in making informed food choices. Using a combination of advanced machine learning algorithms, nutrition science, and digital health technologies, DFRS generates personalized recommendations tailored to individual needs. The methodology involves data collection from diverse patient profiles and model development using Graph Neural Networks (GNN) and other machine learning techniques. Hyperparameter tuning and rigorous performance evaluation were conducted to optimize system accuracy. The results demonstrate that after optimization, GNN achieved an accuracy of 94 percent, significantly enhancing the precision of dietary recommendations. Clinical validation of the system showed a reduction in HbA1c levels, glycemic variability, and incidents of hyper- and hypoglycemia. Therefore, DFRS has proven to be an effective tool for improving dietary management in diabetes care, and its integration into clinical workflows offers the potential to enhance health outcomes and streamline healthcare delivery.

IntroductionNeural tube defects (NTDs) are serious congenital anomalies of the central nervous system caused by disruptions in early embryonic development. The prevalence is about twice as common in low- and middle-income countries and more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Folic acid deficiency is a major risk factor and common during pregnancy. However, limited research on preconception folic acid supplementation in this region highlights the need for systematic reviews and targeted interventions to improve maternal and fetal health.MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature search in EMBASE, MEDLINE, Scopus, CINAHL, Google Scholar, and Google for studies on the proportion of folic acid supplementation during the preconception period, covering publications up to January 2024. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Heterogeneity was evaluated with Cochrane Q and I2 statistics, and small study effects were tested with Egger's test at a 5% significance level. The certainty of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach. A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled proportion of FA supplementation during the preconception period in sub-Saharan African countries.ResultThis systematic review included 28 studies with a total of 12,562 participants. The highest (45.2%) and lowest (1.9%) proportion of folic acid supplementation during preconception period were recorded in the southern and Amhara regions of Ethiopia, respectively. The estimated pooled proportion of folic acid supplementation among women in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) during preconception period was (14.10%; 95% CI: 11.22-16.98) with significant heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 97.71%, p = 0.001). In sub-group analysis based on corresponding countries the highest estimated folic acid supplementation proportion during preconception period was found in studies conducted in Kenya ((22%; 95% CI: 19%-25%), I2 = 97.7%), followed by studies conducted in Ghana (20%; 95% CI: 7%-33%), I2 = 96.9%). The majority of the studies included in the analysis are of high quality, with quality scores ranging from 7 to 8. The certainty of evidence was assessed using the GRADE approach, resulting in a low overall rating.ConclusionThe results of this systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that folic acid supplementation during preconception period is significantly low among mothers in sub-Saharan African countries, despite being one of the best approaches to improve birth outcomes. Therefore, healthcare organizations, governments, policymakers, and other stakeholders involved in folic acid supplementation must collaborate on developing strategies to improve its uptake during the preconception period.

Objective . To systematically review studies to provide the pooled estimate of undernutrition among children and adolescents with cancer living in sub-Saharan African countries. Methods . The review followed the recommendations outlined in the PRISMA statement. Online searches were performed on electronic databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Hinari; gray literature sources: such as Google, Google Scholar, and university repositories were also searched. A random effect model was used to drive the pooled prevalence, and was reported at a 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Heterogeneity was assessed using subgroup analysis and univariable meta-regression. The effect of each study on the overall prevalence was assessed using leave-one-out sensitivity analysis. In all the models, statistical significance was set at P -value

Este texto apresenta algumas vivências de dois professores-pesquisadores de Psicologia de uma Universidade Federal, em uma cidade do interior da região centro-oeste do Brasil. Sala de aula, gabinete de supervisão de estágio, eventos do controle social do campo da Saúde e orientações de pesquisas compõem os cenários vivenciados. A Narrativa Autobiográfica é o método escolhido, por permitir a inclusão da experiência dos autores na construção de saberes e críticas. Apontamos as transformações em nossos currículos, abordagens teóricas e práticas derivadas dessas vivências fronteiriças e também as resistências encontradas frente às estruturas acadêmicas, representantes das elites culturais eurocentradas e do sistema eurocêntrico.

Abstract Background Currently, iodine deficiency has become a significant burden globally; where 2 billion people and 29.8% of school-age children are iodine deficient. It is a leading cause of preventable brain damage among children, resulting in impaired cognitive and motor development. Even though salt iodization was started to be implemented to alleviate this burden in Ethiopia, primary studies assessing iodine deficiency in the country show highly variable findings, and no systematic review was conducted to determine the pooled prevalence of the problem which makes it difficult to assess the effect of the intervention as well as to design appropriate and timely measures. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the pooled prevalence of iodine deficiency and the common factors affecting its occurrence among school-age children in Ethiopia. Method To obtain the eligible studies, databases (EMBASE, Scopus, Hinari, and PubMed), websites (Google and Google Scholar), and references of the eligible studies were searched systematically. Data were extracted using an Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using the STATA 17 version. The I 2 test was used to assess heterogeneity between the studies. A DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence and pooled odds ratio. A funnel plot and Egger’s test were used to detect publication bias. Result A total of 15 eligible studies, representing 15,611 school-age children, were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of iodine deficiency among school-age children in Ethiopia was found to be 58% (95%CI 44.00–77.00), while the highest prevalence was recorded in the Oromia Region, which was 64% (95% CI 49–79). Goitrogenic food consumption (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.93, 95% CI 1.60–5.35) and being female (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.87, 95% CI 1.43–2.44) showed a significant association with the prevalence of iodine deficiency. Conclusion Iodine deficiency among school-age children in Ethiopia was noticeably high. Goitrogenic food consumption and the sex of the child were determinant factors for the occurrence of iodine deficiency among the children. Therefore, appropriate advice should be given to households to limit goitrogenic foods in the diet of their children by giving due attention to their female children.

Introduction The polio vaccine is the live-attenuated antigen that prevents poliomyelitis. According to a report by the WHO, about 1 million less than 5-year-old children missed the polio vaccination from 2018 to 2021. Even though Ethiopia is the most prioritised country for polio eradication, there is not enough evidence about the combined oral and inactivated vaccine in Ethiopia.Objective To assess the non-uptake of the dual protective polio vaccine and its determinants among children in Ethiopia using the Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS) 2019.Methods The secondary data analysis of a community-based cross-sectional study was conducted using EDHS 2019 data among 3094 participants. Mixed-effects binary logistic regression was used for descriptive analysis and identifying the predictors using a p value of

Sandro Loche,1 Shankar Kanumakala,2 Philippe Backeljauw,3 Karl Otfried Schwab,4 Alfonso M Lechuga-Sancho,5– 7 Altaher Esmael,8 Dragan Urosevic,9 Anca Boldea,8 Markus Zabransky8 1Endocrinologia Pediatra e Centro, Screening Neonatale, Ospedale Pediatrico Microcitemico “A. Cao”, Cagliari, Italy; 2University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton, UK; 3Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA; 4Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany; 5Servicio de Pediatría, Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar, Cádiz, Spain; 6Departamento Materno Infantil y Radiología, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain; 7Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Biomédica de Cádiz (INiBICA), Cádiz, Spain; 8HEXAL AG (a Sandoz company), Holzkirchen, Germany; 9Novartis Sandoz Biopharmaceutical AG, c/o HEXAL AG, Basel, SwitzerlandCorrespondence: Sandro Loche, Endocrinologia Pediatra e Centro, Screening Neonatale, Ospedale Pediatrico Microcitemico “A. Cao”, Via Jenner, 09121 Cagliari, Italy, Email sandroloche@libero.itPurpose: Omnitrope® (somatropin) was approved as a biosimilar recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) in 2006. Here, we report final data from the PAtients TReated with Omnitrope® (PATRO) Children study, a post-marketing surveillance study designed to monitor the long-term safety and effectiveness of this treatment in pediatric patients.Methods: The study population included all pediatric patients treated with Omnitrope® (biosimilar rhGH), administered via daily injection, in routine clinical practice. The primary objective was to assess long-term safety, with effectiveness assessed as a secondary objective.Results: In total, 7359 patients were enrolled and treated in the PATRO Children study; 86.0% were treatment-naïve at baseline. Growth hormone deficiency was the most frequent indication (57.9%), followed by patients born small for gestational age (SGA; 26.6%). The mean (SD) duration of exposure to biosimilar rhGH was 3.66 years (2.39). A total of 16,628 adverse events (AEs) were reported in 3981 (54.1%) patients, most of which were mild/moderate. AEs suspected to be treatment related occurred in 8.3% of patients, most frequently headache (1.6%), injection-site pain (1.1%), or injection-site hematoma (1.1%). The incidence rate (IR) of type 2 diabetes mellitus was 0.11 per 1000 person-years (PY) across all patients, and 0.13 per 1000 PY in patients born SGA. The IR of newly diagnosed primary malignancies was 0.22 per 1000 PY across all patients. In the 6589 patients included in the effectiveness population, a sustained catch-up growth was observed across all indications. After 5 years of treatment, height SDS increased from baseline by a median (range) of +1.79 (– 3.7 to 6.2) in treatment-naïve patients and +0.73 (– 1.4 to 3.7) in pretreated patients.Conclusion: This final analysis of the PATRO Children study indicates that biosimilar rhGH is well tolerated and effective in real-world clinical practice. These data are consistent with the well-characterized safety profile of rhGH treatment in pediatric patients.Plain Language Summary: Why was the study done?Injections of growth hormone medicine can be used to increase height velocity in children with growth disorders.It is important to monitor the safety of long-term growth hormone treatment, especially regarding the risk of cancer and diabetes.What did the researchers do?PATRO Children was a study designed to look at the safety of using a growth hormone medicine for long periods of time.This study included children with several different growth disorders who were treated with a growth hormone medicine called Omnitrope®, which is administered via daily injections, and followed them throughout their treatment.The researchers aimed to evaluate the risk of specific safety concerns in these patients, including cancer and diabetes.What did the researchers find?A total of 7359 patients were enrolled from 304 sites around the world.Overall, 8.3% of patients had an adverse reaction that was considered to be related to growth hormone treatment.The most common adverse reaction considered related to growth hormone was headache, which occurred in 1.6% of patients.The risk of developing diabetes and cancer was low and comparable to what has been seen in previous studies in patients treated with growth hormone, and in the general population.What do the findings mean?The adverse reactions seen in this study were consistent with the well-characterized safety profile of growth hormone treatment in pediatric patients. This supports previous studies showing growth hormone treatment is not associated with an increased risk of cancer or diabetes in children.Keywords: Omnitrope, PATRO Children, growth hormone, pediatrics, growth hormone deficiency, small for gestational age

Objective The study aimed to assess the utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services and the associated factors among mothers of children under 2 years old in Gondar Zuria District, northwest Ethiopia.Design Community-based, cross-sectional study.Setting The study was conducted in Gondar Zuria District, Central Gondar Zone. Data collection was conducted from 10 March to 5 April 2022.Participants 576 mother–child pairs, recruited via a multistage, stratified random sampling technique.Outcome measures and analysis Utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services was the outcome of the study. Data were entered into Epi Info V.7 and exported to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences V.24.0 for further analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with utilisation of growth monitoring services. A p value less than 0.05 was considered significant for the outcome variable.Results The utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services among children aged 0–23 months was 26.6% (95% CI 22.9, 30.2). Health centre delivery (adjusted OR (AOR)=1.56; 95% CI 1.02, 2.68), postnatal care visits (AOR=3.13; 95% CI 1.99, 4.90), regular growth monitoring and promotion sessions (AOR=6.53; 95% CI 2.43, 9.34), and wealth status (AOR=5.98; 95% CI 3.09, 10.58) were significantly associated with utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services.Conclusion Less than one in three children aged 0–23 months saw utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services in the study setting. Birthplace, postnatal care follow-up, regular growth promotion and monitoring sessions, and wealth status were associated with utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services. Enhancing skilled birth delivery, promoting postnatal care follow-up and expanding the availability of growth monitoring and promotion outreach sites could be useful to improve the utilisation of growth monitoring and promotion services.

BackgroundTimely vaccination is the practice of administering the vaccine within the first birthday of the child. Not vaccinating the child at the appropriate age is the cause of improper protection of diseases and can be a possible factor in death. The problem of not completing the vaccine in the scheduled period is a globally distributed problem, but especially in sub-Saharan African countries, it is a bottleneck to child health. Even if timely vaccination is crucial for reducing the impact of VPDs, there are no current national-level studies to generate conclusive and tangible evidence in Ethiopia.ObjectiveTo assess spatial variations and determinants of timely completion of vaccination in Ethiopia using further analysis of EDHS 2019 data.MethodThe secondary data analysis of a community-based cross-sectional study design was employed among 3094 participants. Stata-14 software was used for data cleaning, recording, and analysis. Arc GIS version 10.3 and Kuldorff SAT scan version 9.6 software are used for spatial and SAT scan statistics. A multilevel mixed-effect binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of timely vaccination. The clustering effect was also evaluated by Moran's I statistics and intra class correlation.ResultsThe timely completion of vaccination among Ethiopian women who had a child aged 12-35 months was 19.5% (95%CI: 18.2-20.8), and the spatial distribution of timely completion of vaccinations in Ethiopia was non-randomly distributed. A statistically significant high proportion of timely completion areas were clustered in the eastern part of Amhara, the south part of Afar, Addis Ababa, and Oromia. The primary cluster was located at a 13.11 km radius in Diredawa, which was 3.68 times higher than outside the window (RR = 3.68, LLR = 68.76, p-value < 0.001). History of antenatal care follow-up (AOR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.3-2.04), giving birth at health facilities (AOR = 1.63, 95% CI: 1.25-2.13), age ≥ 35 years (AOR = 186, 95% CI: 1.35-2.63), age 25-34 years (AOR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.33-2.21), and being richest (AOR = 2.71, 95% CI: 1.86-3.94) were the factors contributing to the timely completion of vaccination.ConclusionThe prevalence of timely completion of vaccination was low in Ethiopia, and the spatial distribution of timely completion of vaccination in Ethiopia was non-randomly distributed across the regions. The factors associated with the timely completion of vaccinations were ANC follow-up, place of delivery, age of the participant, and wealth index. We recommend expanding facility delivery, antenatal care services, and empowering women to scale up timely vaccination in Ethiopia.

Education is crucial for a productive life and providing necessary resources. With the advent of technology like artificial intelligence, higher education institutions are incorporating technology into traditional teaching methods. Predicting academic success has gained interest in education as a strong academic record improves a university’s ranking and increases student employment opportunities. Modern learning institutions face challenges in analyzing performance, providing high-quality education, formulating strategies for evaluating students’ performance, and identifying future needs. E-learning is a rapidly growing and advanced form of education, where students enroll in online courses. Platforms like Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), learning management systems (LMS), and massive open online courses (MOOC) use educational data mining (EDM) to develop automatic grading systems, recommenders, and adaptative systems. However, e-learning is still considered a challenging learning environment due to the lack of direct interaction between students and course instructors. Machine learning (ML) is used in developing adaptive intelligent systems that can perform complex tasks beyond human abilities. Some areas of applications of ML algorithms include cluster analysis, pattern recognition, image processing, natural language processing, and medical diagnostics. In this research work, K-means, a clustering data mining technique using Davies’ Bouldin method, obtains clusters to find important features affecting students’ performance. The study found that the SVM algorithm had the best prediction results after parameter adjustment, with a 96% accuracy rate. In this paper, the researchers have examined the functions of the Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, naive Bayes, and KNN classifiers. The outcomes of parameter adjustment greatly increased the accuracy of the four prediction models. Naïve Bayes model’s prediction accuracy is the lowest when compared to other prediction methods, as it assumes a strong independent relationship between features.

Abstract Background The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-2 aims to eliminate child hunger or end all forms of child malnutrition by 2030. To achieve this goal the cost-effective method is the implementation of growth monitoring and promotion service with the contribution of Women Development Army (WDA) as community volunteers. However, According to the data, the program’s implementation varies throughout the country and lack of evidence on the practical contribution of the WDA to enhancing child nutritional care outcomes. Therefore this study aimed to determine practical contribution of WDA and associated factors on growth monitoring and promotion service in two rural districts of central Gondar zone, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods A community based mixed study was conducted from March 6 to April 7, 2022 among 615 Women Development Army. Multistage sampling technique was used to select study participants. A structured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data and in-depth interview were used to generate qualitative information. Qualitative data were coded and grouped and discussed using identified themes. Binary logistic regression was fitted, odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was estimated to identify factors of practical contribution of WDA and qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results In this study practical contribution of WDA on growth monitoring was 31.4% (95% CI: 28.0-35.3%). Having GMP training (AOR = 4.2, 95%CI: 1.63, 10.58), regular community conversation (AOR = 6.0, 95%CI: 3.12, 11.54), good knowledge about GMP (AOR = 2.1, 95%CI: 1.17, 3.83) and not having regular schedule of GMP service in the area (AOR = 0.04, 95%CI: 0.02, 0.09), were statistically significantly associated with practical contribution of growth monitoring. During in-depth interview, lack of training, low motivation or commitment among WDA and low communication between WDA and health extension workers were mentioned among the problems faced during growth monitoring service. Conclusion In this study, practical contribution of growth monitoring among WDA was low. GMP training regular community conversation, knowledge about GMP and regular schedule of GMP service in the local area were significantly associated for practical contribution of growth monitoring service. Lack of training, low motivation or commitment among WDA and low communication between WDA and health extension workers were reasons for did not contribute effectively for GMP service. Therefore, giving training for WDA and improving community conversation at kebeles level are important to improve GM service. .

AbstractThis review paper attempted to assess the tax compliance behavior of taxpayers in Ethiopia. The objectives were specifically to identify determinants and challenges of tax compliance behavior of taxpayers in Ethiopia. Taxes are the most important sources of the government that make it possible to finance infrastructure, investment, and the provision of services for citizens. Tax compliance involves being aware and complying with tax laws and regulations set by the government and tax authorities. Tax non-compliance is an unwillingness in obeying tax laws and regulations. Tax non-compliance has been a challenge to the government and tax authorities in collecting as much tax as required for the nation. Failure to comply with tax prevents adequate revenue collection of the state. The major challenges of tax compliance in Ethiopia are the complexity of the tax system, inefficiency of tax authorities, lack of tax knowledge and awareness, negative perception of taxpayers, a negative act of tax assessors, absence of tax training, lack of transparency of tax system, arbitrary estimation of taxes, personal financial constraints, political instability and lack of timely tax audit.

Este texto apresenta algumas considerações sobre os efeitos necropolíticos da Covid-19 no Brasil contemporâneo, a partir da análise de quatro “discursos-cenas” amplamente divulgados na mídia brasileira acerca do cenário da pandemia no País ao longo de 2020 (ano que marca o início da pandemia no País) e 2021. A análise de discursos, proferidos pelo atual presidente da República, bem como por alguns de seus ministros e apoiadores, são reveladores de que a crise da pandemia e as estratégias para seu enfrentamento não se reduzem a uma dimensão epidemiológica. À luz do debate sobre marcadores sociais de diferença (gênero, sexualidade, classe, raça/cor, etnia, geração, entre outros), chama-se a atenção para a importância ético-política do exercício de desconfiança e desnaturalização dos regimes de verdade que sustentam os racismos de Estado contemporâneos. Apresenta-se ainda reflexões em torno da produção das diferenças no Brasil pós-pandemia da Covid-19 em termos de desigualdades históricas, além de apontar para a necessidade de enfrentamentos e resistências às hierarquizações sociais, especialmente em um contexto de ódio às diferenças.

Objectives To determine the prevalence of stunting and thinness and associated factors among adolescents attending public schools in Lideta subcity, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2021.Design Cross-sectional.Setting Public schools in Lideta subcity, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Eligibility Adolescents from grades 5–12 in public schools and students whose parents gave consent for participation.Data analysis Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between the independent variables and stunting and thinness. Using a 95% CI and adjusted OR (AOR), factors with a p value of less than 0.05 were determined to have a significant association.Outcome measures The prevalence of stunting and thinness, as well as the factors associated with stunting and thinness, were secondary outcomes.Results The overall prevalence of stunting and thinness was 7.2% (95% CI: 5.3% to 9.3%) and 9% (95% CI: 6.8% to 11.4%), respectively. Stunting was associated with a larger family size (AOR=3.76; 95% CI: 1.58 to 8.94), low dietary diversity (AOR=2.87; 95% CI: 1.44 to 5.74), food insecurity (AOR=2.81; 95% CI: 1.38 to 5.71) and a lower wealth index (AOR=3.34; 95% CI: 1.51 to 7.41). On the other hand, thinness was associated with maternal education in those who were unable to read and write (AOR=2.5; 95% CI: 1.97 to 8.11), inadequate dietary diversity (AOR=4.81; 95% CI: 2.55 to 9.07) and larger family size (AOR=2.46; 95% CI: 1.14 to 5.29).Conclusion Adolescent stunting and thinness were common in Addis Ababa’s public schools. Family size, dietary diversity and food security were the main factors associated with both thinness and stunting. Therefore, to solve the problem of adolescent stunting and thinness, the administration of Addis Ababa city should prioritise minimising food insecurity while boosting productivity to enhance adolescent nutritional diversity. Moreover, nutritional education should be strengthened by healthcare providers working at public schools as well as health extension workers.

The explosive growth in the amount of available digital information in higher education has created a potential challenge of information overload, which hampers timely access to items of interest. The recommender systems are applied in different domains such as recommendations film, tourist advising, webpages, news, songs, and products. But the recommender systems pay less attention to university library services. The most users of university library are students. These users have a lack of ability to search and select the appropriate materials from the large repository that meet for their needs. A lot of work has been done on recommender system, but there are technical gaps observed in existing works such as the problem of constant item list in using web usage mining, decision tree induction, and association rule mining. Besides, it is observed that there is cold start problem in case-based reasoning approach. Therefore, this research work presents matrix factorization collaborative filtering with some performance enhancement to overcome cold start problem. In addition, it presents a comparative study among memory-based and model-based approaches. In this study, researchers used design science research method. The study dataset, 5189 records and 76,888 ratings, was collected from the University of Gondar student information system and online catalogue system. To develop the proposed model, memory-based and model-based approaches have been tested. In memory-based approach, matrix factorization collaborative filtering with some performance enhancements has been implemented. In model-based approach, K-nearest neighbour (KNN) and singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithms are also assessed experimentally. The SVD model is trained on our dataset optimized with a scored RMSE 0.1623 compared to RMSE 0.1991 before the optimization. The RMSE for a KNN model trained using the same dataset was 1.0535. This indicates that the matrix factorization performs better than KNN models in building collaborative filtering recommenders. The proposed SVD-based model accuracy score is 85%. The accuracy score of KNN model is 53%. So, the comparative study indicates that matrix factorization technique, specifically SVD algorithm, outperforms over neighbourhood-based recommenders. Moreover, using hyperparameter tuning with SVD also has an improvement on model performance compared with the existing SVD algorithm.

The development of financial sectors is considered as one of vital determinants of the growth of Ethiopian economy, and for secure equitable distribution of the benefits to the society. However, financial distress has an effect on the sectors. This review was conducted to assess financial distress situation of financial sectors in Ethiopia. The objective is specifically to identify the determinants of financial distress, opportunities of financial sectors, and challenges and constraints of financial distress in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a developing country with majority of unbanked population. Liquidity, profitability, leverage, firm size, capital adequacy, management efficiency, earning ability, inflation and interest rate are major determinant of financial distress in Ethiopia. Moreover, Ethiopian financial sectors have an opportunity of trade openness, rapid economic growth, unexploited resource, population growth and encouragement of privatization.