Giuseppe Anastasi, Marco Conti, Enrico Gregori, Andrea Passarella and Luciana Pelusi
Pervasive services and smart environments are becoming more and more popular as an ever‐increasing number of people enjoys these services typically by means of portable devices…
Abstract
Pervasive services and smart environments are becoming more and more popular as an ever‐increasing number of people enjoys these services typically by means of portable devices. These devices are battery‐fed and, thus, energy efficiency is a critical factor for the deployment of pervasive services. In this paper we focus on multimedia streaming services for mobile users. Specifically, we consider a scenario where mobile users with Wi‐Fi devices access the Internet to receive audio files from a remote streaming server. We propose a proxybased architecture and an energy‐efficient streaming protocol that minimize the energy consumption of the Wi‐Fi interface at the mobile device, while guaranteeing the real‐time constraints of the audio streaming. The experimental analysis performed on a prototype implementation shows that our solution allows an energy saving ranging from 76% to 91% of the total consumption due to the network interface. Moreover, it also preserves a good user‐level Quality of Service.
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Fernando Augusto Gouvea-Reis, Danniely Carolinne Soares da Silva, Lairton Souza Borja, Patrícia de Oliveira Dias, Jadher Percio, Cassio Peterka, Janaína de Oliveira, Giselle Sodré, Claudia Mendes Feres, Wallace Dos Santos, Fábio Souza, Ana Izabel Passarella Teixeira, Daiani Cristina Cilião-Alves, Gustavo Adolfo Sierra Romero, Elza Ferreira Noronha, Julio Croda, Rodrigo Haddad, Walter Massa Ramalho, Camile de Moraes and Wildo Navegantes de Araújo
This study aims to estimate the overall SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and evaluate the accuracy of an antibody rapid test compared to a reference serological assay during a COVID-19…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to estimate the overall SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and evaluate the accuracy of an antibody rapid test compared to a reference serological assay during a COVID-19 outbreak in a prison complex housing over 13,000 prisoners in Brasília.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors obtained a randomized, stratified representative sample of each prison unit and conducted a repeated serosurvey among prisoners between June and July 2020, using a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA). Samples were also retested using a chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay (CLIA) to compare SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and 21-days incidence, as well as to estimate the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) and determine the diagnostic accuracy of the LFIA test.
Findings
This study identified 485 eligible individuals and enrolled 460 participants. Baseline and 21-days follow-up seroprevalence were estimated at 52.0% (95% CI 44.9–59.0) and 56.7% (95% CI 48.2–65.3) with LFIA; and 80.7% (95% CI 74.1–87.3) and 81.1% (95% CI 74.4–87.8) with CLIA, with an overall IFR of 0.02%. There were 78.2% (95% CI 66.7–89.7) symptomatic individuals among the positive cases. Sensitivity and specificity of LFIA were estimated at 43.4% and 83.3% for IgM; 46.5% and 91.5% for IgG; and 59.1% and 77.3% for combined tests.
Originality/value
The authors found high seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the prison complex. The occurrence of asymptomatic infection highlights the importance of periodic mass testing in addition to case-finding of symptomatic individuals; however, the field performance of LFIA tests should be validated. This study recommends that vaccination strategies consider the inclusion of prisoners and prison staff in priority groups.
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Monica Mensah Danquah, Omwoyo Bosire Onyancha and Bright Kwaku Avuglah
The ranking of universities and other research-intensive institutions in global ranking systems is based on numerous indicators, including number of articles with external…
Abstract
Purpose
The ranking of universities and other research-intensive institutions in global ranking systems is based on numerous indicators, including number of articles with external collaboration, number of articles with international collaboration, number of articles with industry collaboration as well as co-patents with industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine university–industry research collaboration in Ghana, with the aim of exploring the relationship between the research output collaborations in the top four universities in Ghana and industry across different geographical scales.
Design/methodology/approach
This study’s data was obtained from the SciVal database, which drawn its data from the Scopus bibliographic and citation database. The bibliographic and citation data were extracted using a search of the publications affiliated to the University of Ghana, for the period 2011–2020.
Findings
Key findings demonstrate a constant rise in the number of research publications by the selected universities over time. Research collaboration intensity in the selected universities in terms of co-authored publications was higher as compared to single-authored publications. University–industry research co-authorships were, however, lower when compared to university–university research co-authorships. The university–industry research co-authorships occurred mostly with Europe, Asia-Pacific and North American-based institutions as opposed to African-based institutions. In Ghana, four industry-based institutions were engaged in intensive research with the selected universities.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates that, for each selected university, it is possible to measure the performance of individual universities in both intra-regional and international collaboration. Such results may be useful in informing policy as well as merit-based public funding of universities in Ghana.