University of Makeni

O Transtorno do Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade (TDAH) é uma condição neuropsiquiátrica e complexa, caracterizada por sintomas de desatenção, impulsividade e hiperatividade. Com os avanços da neuroimagem, a ressonância magnética (RM), especialmente em suas modalidades funcional (fMRI) e por tensor de difusão (DTI), tem se mostrado uma ferramenta eficaz na investigação das bases neurobiológicas do TDAH. Este estudo, de natureza qualitativa e baseado em revisão bibliográfica, teve como objetivo analisar a influência da RM na avaliação do TDAH, destacando sua contribuição na identificação de padrões cerebrais atípicos e conectividades alteradas. Os achados revelam alterações funcionais e estruturais em regiões como o córtex pré-frontal, núcleo caudado, cerebelo e corpo caloso, além de diferenças de gênero e resposta a medicamentos. Apesar do seu valor investigativo, a RM ainda apresenta limitações práticas para uso clínico, como o alto custo e a necessidade de colaboração do paciente. No entanto, sua integração com métodos clínicos, neuropsicológicos e computacionais, como algoritmos de machine learning, oferece potencial para diagnósticos mais precisos e tratamentos personalizados. Conclui-se que, embora a RM ainda não seja uma ferramenta diagnóstica definitiva, seu papel é fundamental na compreensão e avanço do manejo do TDAH.

During President Trump's first term, he declared a US-China trade war, which formed numerous opportunities for developing countries. It also urges multinational corporations to relocate their manufacturing factories outside of the US-China region to prevent further increasing tariff. This study used "the dependency theory" to understand that Indonesia is the biggest economy in ASEAN, despite Nigeria and South Africa as the largest economies in Africa. As Sierra Leone's geographical position connects South America, Africa, and Asia by Sea, but they did not have any significant advantages during the trade war, in comparison to Vietnam. Therefore, this study compares and analyzes two forms of policy competition, Incentives-Based (IBC) and Rules-Based (RBC), to solve the issue of how these Global South nations should benefit from the Trump tariff war. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, it examines the opportunities for the tariff wars ahead between developed countries, which may lead to another great recession. As the results, this study shows that policies do not accommodate to investors as those in Vietnam, whose population is smaller than Indonesia's. Obviously, Nigeria is serving as an alternative for investment, increasing its GDP and creating a favorable public perception of free trade.

The most commonly used indicator to identify times of increased risk of heat stress for dairy cows is THI, which measures the heat load that cattle may suffer from air temperature ( ∘ C) and relative humidity (RH). The present study employed two working hypotheses: firstly, that measuring cumulative hours of exposure to THI results in a better prognosis for heat stress than using maximum THI values; and secondly, that under high THI conditions, THI has been increasing in the Comarca Lagunera. The present study employed a Big Data Predictive Analytics approach, utilising models estimated from 85 years of daily, hourly observations to estimate calibrated statistical models and forecast trends. The THI was organised in three categories: accumulated daily hours (HSacc), the daily average or mean of THI (THImean), and the daily maximum THI (THImax). The measurement of these variables was conducted at four levels of THI: more than 67, 69–71, 72–76 and 77 or more. For HSacc, the optimal model was identified as Prophet; for THImean and THImax, GLMNET was found to be the most suitable model, with positive slopes observed across almost all levels. The models predict and increment in the next 10 years of 0.14, 0.20 and 0.32 hours in the daily values of HSacc, THImean and THImax, respectively. It is evident that the findings of this study will play a pivotal role in the identification, implementation and assessment of strategies that have the potential to mitigate the adverse effects of heat stress in the region.

Following the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, the post-Ebola recovery investments in Wellbody Clinic and Koidu Government Hospital provide an opportunity to conduct a more focused examination of facility-level maternal health services and outcomes in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to describe the use of maternal healthcare services and outcomes in these health facilities before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved analysis of routine programme data (March 2019 to February 2022) from two public health facilities supported by Partners In Health Sierra Leone: Koidu Government Hospital and Wellbody Clinic. Aggregated and de-identified secondary data was abstracted using a standardized tool. Descriptive statistics and bivariable negative binomial regression were used to assess the association between time periods ( pre-COVID-19 period [March 2019 to February 2020], during COVID-19 emergency period [March 2020 to February 2021], after COVID-19 emergency period [March 2021 to February 2022) and outcomes (antenatal care visit and facility deliveries). The study analyzed 3,204 fourth antenatal care visits and 7,369 deliveries over 36 months at both health facilities. The fourth antenatal care visits (from 947 to 920) and facility deliveries (from 2309 to 2221) decreased during COVID-19 compared to pre-COVID-19. However, maternal (from 32 to 23) and neonatal (36 to 26) deaths declined during COVID-19 compared to the pre-COVID-19 period at Koidu Government Hospital. Regression analysis showed that relative to the period of COVID-19 emergency period, there were no observable difference in the rate of fourth antenatal care visits in the pre-COVID-19 period [IRR = 1.02, 95%CI: 0.61, 1.72] and during the post-COVID-19 emergency period [IRR = 1.45, 95%CI: 0.87, 2.42]. Relative to the COVID-19 emergency period, there was also no difference observed in maternal deliveries: pre-COVID-19 [IRR = 1.03, 95%CI: 0.69, 1.56] and post-COVID-19 emergency [IRR = 1.28, 95%CI: 0.85, 1.92]. In Sierra Leone, the resources and efforts directed to the post-Ebola recovery strategy were tested during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study demonstrates the resilience of maternal and neonatal services in two healthcare facilities in a less-affected region of Sierra Leone, to the anticipated disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of two doses of hCG (100 and 300 IU) administered at two different times after fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI) on some response variables related to early fetal loss and total litter weight in goats during the reproductive transition period. Crossbred multiparous goats (n = 40) were subjected to an estrus induction protocol, subsequently inseminated, and randomly distributed into five experimental groups (n = 8): (1). G100-7, 100 IU hCG, 7 d post FTAI; (2). G100-14, 100 IU hCG, 14 days post FTAI; (3). G300-7, 300 IU hCG, 7 d post FTAI; (4). G300-14, 300 IU hCG, 14 days post FTAI; and (5). CONT, 0.5 mL of saline solution, 7 and 14 days post FTAI. The variables of corpus luteum area, embryonic implantation rate, embryonic efficiency index 1 and 2, conception rate, fertility rate, fecundity rate, fetal losses at days 30 and 45, total fetal losses, and the total weight of the litter favored G300-14. The use of hCG (300 IU) in the reproductive transition period is an effective reproductive strategy, reducing early fetal losses, improving embryonic efficiency, and increasing total litter weight, all of which are fundamental to the reproductive success of marginal goat production systems.

The growing misinformation on social media is also a potentially significant problem which is affecting the opinion and decision in the fields of health, politics, and safety. Under this paper, an Explainable AI (XAI) framework is proposed to combine deep learning-based techniques such as Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based semantic feature extraction model to identify misinformation in social media texts. A hybrid model that uses Bi-LSTM and attention mechanism as a sequence learner and explainability tools like LIME, SHAP, and attention heatmaps as means of improving transparency, may work well in line with their respective objectives. The framework retrieves the abundance of semantic data in terms of lexical, syntactic, semantic, and contextual features due to high-tech NLP methods such as BERT embeddings and topic modeling. To test the model, the benchmark datasets like Fake Newsnet, LIAR, and Twitter15/16 datasets were used, with the maximum accuracy of 93.2%. Ablation with the critical significance of contextual and semantic features identified, and explainability analysis leads to interpretable details about the decision-making process launched by the model. Summarizing, the framework provides an appropriate balance between predictive accuracy and interpretability, thus they are appropriate to use in applications that should guarantee trust and transparency to the end-user.

Artikel ini membahas peran gereja dalam mewujudkan perdamaian dunia perspektif oikumene berdasarkan kajian teks 2 Korintus 5: 18-20. Indonesia peduli akan perdamaian dunia dan aktif dalam mewujudkannya yang terbukti dalam regulasi yang terlihat dalam Pembukaan UUD 1945 sebab perdamaian dunia adalah tanggung jawab bersama. Melihat konflik yang berkepanjanagn yang dapat disebabkan oleh perbedaan doktrin/ajaran agama, agama, suku, budaya dan politik akan terus ada bila tidak disikapi dengan bijaksana. Yang lebih menyedihkan lagi adalah konflik justru terjadi dalam gereja, yang terkait dengan perbedaan doktrin, liturgi dan kepentingan pribadi marak terjadi dalam gereja. Padahal dalam gerejalah ajaran keadilan dan kasih selalu menjadi ujung tombak pewartaan gereja. Melalui metode kualitatif dengan pendekatan interpretatif akan ditemukan arti perdamaian yang hakiki serta posisi gereja yang berperan aktif mewujudkan perdamaian dunia. Hasilnya didapati bahwa peran gereja adalah memberitakan bahwa Kristus adalah perantara pendamaian dan perdamaian itu telah dikerjakanNya. Allah mengasihi dunia yang berdoa dengan tidak memperhitungkan pelanggaran manusia malahan menjadikan dirinya sebagai penebus dosa manusia. Yang ketiga Allah justru mempercayakan berita pendamaian untuk dikerjakan manusia dan menjadi utusan-utusan Allah dalam proklamai perdamaian. Perspektif Oikumene menekankan betapa pentingnya kerjasama lintas denominasi untuk menciptakan kesatuan gereja demi mendukung perdamaian universal. Selain itu, penelitian ini menekankan bahwa gereja tidak hanya berfungsi sebagai lembaga agama tetapi juga berperan sebagai teman dekat dalam masyarakat plural. Hanya melalui Kristus pendamaian sejati dapat dicapai, baik di dalam komunitas gereja maupun di seluruh dunia yang beragam. Sebagai tanggapan terhadap tantangan yang dihadapi dunia saat ini, artikel ini menyarankan gereja untuk lebih aktif dalam menyebarkan nilai-nilai kerajaan Allah dan menjadi perwujudan nyata berita shalom Kata Kunci: Peran Gereja, Pendamaian, Tanggung jawab, dunia

Sierra Leone, like the majority of developing countries, is being increasingly pushed towards a green growth model, a framework that balances sustainable development with economic growth while leaving intact environmental integrity. Despite how much this model has become more relevant in the wake of climate change and shortages of resources, there is little to indicate that sustainable development features in Sierra Leone's transition towards green. Applying the SWOT approach of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats method, a traditional strategy planning based on internal and external conditions influencing development processes, the study measures the nation's readiness to take the green development path. It uses qualitative secondary data analysis, gathering data from government, policy, and research reports, and institutions that are experts in sustainable development, renewable energy, and environmental governance. The SWOT method is applied to the systematic categorization of strategic enabling and inhibiting factors: internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. Strengths include abundant natural resources, environmentally friendly policies, room for the development of renewable energy, and a highly educated population. Weaknesses such as inadequate institutional framework, low indigenous investment in green technology, political apathy, and reliance on foreign aid are potent dampeners. Opportunities are instigated through the availability of overseas climate finance, greater global green awareness, and global coordination. In comparison, high cost of green technology, limited international transfer of technology, exposure to climate, political tensions, and corruption represent critical setbacks to green change. The study concludes that Sierra Leone can have sustainable green growth, but that it must be pursued with audacious political will, underpinned institutional capacity, investment in science and technology education, as well as anti-corruption. SWOT analysis was also proven effective in recommending areas of intervention priority for policymakers’ consideration, building a strategic framework for guiding national development planning that is sensitive to the global climate and sustainability agenda.

Some of the major challenges of project/dissertation writing of undergraduate students in universities are the presentation of results, discussion of findings and referencing or citation of sources used in the text of their research work. This paper examined the challenges faced by project or undergraduate dissertation supervisors and identified the framework of their obligations and expectations in the process of supervision. However, these challenges has given rise to a lot of poor-quality projects or dissertation work by undergraduate students in most universities across the world. Nonetheless, this paper seek to present a concise context on how to overcome challenges on discussion of research findings, referencing or citation of sources with the examples on the use of different reference styles and a guide on how supervisors should help their undergraduate students produce quality research work.