Dynamics of health and wellness at an African Pentecostal Churchrelated institution in Zimbabwe:

The article explores the challenges faced by God’s Grace University in Zimbabwe (a pseudonym), an African Pentecostal Church-affiliated institution, due to an increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among its students. As one of the pioneering African Pentecostal church-affiliated universities in Zimbabwe, it has experienced a significant surge in student enrolment, which coincides with an increase in STI incidents. The information gathered during the research highlights the frequent visits by students to the university clinic for STI treatments, an indication that the university’s exclusive dependence on premarital abstinence as a preventive measure is inadequate. To curb the escalating infection rates, the article recommends the implementation of additional STI prevention strategies. Data for the article was gathered through interviews with university administrators and students, employing a descriptive phenomenological approach and interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Due to ethical considerations, the names of participants and the organisation have been omitted

Visual Assessments of Functional Maps

Shape-matching is one central topic in Geometry Processing, with numerous important applications in Computer Graphics and shape analysis, such as shape registration, shape interpolation, modeling, information transfer and many others. A recent and successful class of shape-matching methods is based on the functional maps framework [OBCS*12] where the correspondences between the two surfaces is described in terms of a mapping between functions. Several effective approaches have been proposed to produce accurate and reliable functional maps, leading to need for a way to assess the quality of a given solution. In particular, standard quantitative evaluation methods focus mainly on the global matching error disregarding the annoying effects of wrong correspondences along the surface details. Therefore, in this context, it is very important to pair quantitative numeric evaluations with a visual, qualitative assessment. Although this is usually not recognized as a problem, the latter task is not trivial, and we argue that the commonly employed solutions suffer from important limitations. In this work, we offer a new visual evaluation method which is based on the transfer of the object-space normals across the two spaces and then visualize the resulting lighting. In spite of its simplicity, this method produces readable images that allow subtleties of the mapping to be discerned, and improve direct comparability of alternative results.Symposium on Geometry Processing 2019- PostersPoster

Visual Assessments of Functional Maps

Shape-matching is one central topic in Geometry Processing, with numerous important applications in Computer Graphics and shape analysis, such as shape registration, shape interpolation, modeling, information transfer and many others. A recent and successful class of shape-matching methods is based on the functional maps framework [OBCS*12] where the correspondences between the two surfaces is described in terms of a mapping between functions. Several effective approaches have been proposed to produce accurate and reliable functional maps, leading to need for a way to assess the quality of a given solution. In particular, standard quantitative evaluation methods focus mainly on the global matching error disregarding the annoying effects of wrong correspondences along the surface details. Therefore, in this context, it is very important to pair quantitative numeric evaluations with a visual, qualitative assessment. Although this is usually not recognized as a problem, the latter task is not trivial, and we argue that the commonly employed solutions suffer from important limitations. In this work, we offer a new visual evaluation method which is based on the transfer of the object-space normals across the two spaces and then visualize the resulting lighting. In spite of its simplicity, this method produces readable images that allow subtleties of the mapping to be discerned, and improve direct comparability of alternative results

Bioreactor design and implementation strategies for the cultivation of filamentous fungi and the production of fungal metabolites: from traditional methods to engineered systems

The production of fungal metabolites and conidia at an industrial scale requires an adequate yield at relatively low cost. To this end, many factors are examined and the design of the bioreactor to be used for the selected product takes a predominant place in the analysis. One approach to addressing the issue is to integrate the scaling-up procedure according to the biological characteristics of the microorganism considered, i.e. in our case filamentous fungi. Indeed, the scaling-up procedure is considered as one of the major bottlenecks in fermentation technology, mainly due to the near impossibility of reproducing the ideal conditions obtained in small reactors designed for research purposes when transposing them to a much larger production scale. The present review seeks to make the point regarding the bioreactor design and its implementation for cultivation of filamentous fungi and the production of fungal metabolites according to different developmental stages of fungi of industrial interest. Solid-state (semi-solid), submerged, fermentation and biofilm reactors are analyzed. The different bioreactor designs used for these three processes are also described at the technological level

CMH: Coordinates Manifold Harmonics for Functional Remeshing

In digital world reconstruction, 2-dimensional surface of real objects are often obtained as polygonal meshes after an acquisition procedure using 3D sensors. However, such representation requires several manual efforts from highly experts to correct the irregularity of tessellation and make it suitable for professional applications, such as those in the gaming or movie industry. Moreover, for modelling and animation purposes it is often required that the same connectivity is shared among two or more different shapes. In this paper we propose a new method that exploits a remeshing-by-matching approach where the observed noisy shape inherits a regular tessellation from a target shape which already satisfies the professional constraints. A fully automatic pipeline is introduced based on a variation of the functional mapping framework. In particular, a new set of basis functions, namely the Coordinates Manifold Harmonics (CMH), is properly designed for this tessellation transfer task. In our experiments an exhaustive quantitative and quality evaluation is reported for human body shapes in T-pose where the effectiveness of the proposed functional remeshing is clearly shown in comparison with other methods

Adaption and validation of the Rwandese version of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire for the screening of bipolar disorder

Background: Bipolar disorder is challenging to diagnose. In Rwanda, a sub-Saharan country with a limited number of psychiatrists, the number of people with an undetected diagnosis of bipolar disorder could be high. Still, no screening tool for the disorder is available in the country. This study aimed to adapt and validate the Mood Disorder Questionnaire in the Rwandan population. Methods: The Mood Disorder Questionnaire was translated into Kinyarwanda. The process involved back-translation, cross-cultural adaptation, field testing of the pre-final version, and final adjustments. A total of 331 patients with either bipolar disorder or unipolar major depression from two psychiatric outpatient hospitals were included. The statistical analysis included reliability and validity analyses and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. The optimal cut-off was chosen by maximizing Younden's index. Results: The Rwandese version of The Mood Disorder Questionnaire had adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha =0.91). The optimal threshold value was at least six positive items, which yielded excellent sensitivity (94.7%), and specificity (97.3%). The ROC area under the curve (AUC) was 0.99. Conclusion: The adapted tool showed good psychometric properties in terms of reliability and validity for the screening of bipolar disorder, with a recommended cutoff value of six items on the symptom checklist for a positive score and an exclusion of items 14 and 15. The tool has the potential to be a crucial instrument to identify otherwise undetected cases of bipolar disorder in Rwanda, improving access to mental health treatment, thus enhancing the living conditions of people with bipolar disorder

Group psychoeducation for persons with bipolar disorder in Rwanda:a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of psychoeducation as an add-on treatment to pharmacotherapy is well documented in treating symptoms and in relapse prevention for persons with bipolar disorder in western countries. Yet, no studies on psychosocial interventions for persons with bipolar disorder have been conducted in a low-income country in Africa. AIM: To develop a bipolar group psychoeducation program contextualized to the Rwandese setting, and determine its effect on symptom severity, medical adherence, and internalized stigma. METHODS: A culturally adapted guide manual was developed by local mental health professionals, including nurses, psychologists, and medical doctors. In-depth interviews with participants were held prior to and will be held following the intervention to address the cultural aspect of living with bipolar disease and the impact of the program. A two-armed randomized controlled trial has been set up at the tertiary mental health hospitals in Rwanda, with an intervention and a waiting list arm. A sample size of at least 50 in each arm was calculated as a requirement. The study’s primary outcome measure will be the difference in relapse rate measured on the Young Mania Rating Scale and Hamilton Depression Scale-17. Differences in mean change on scales for medical adherence and internalized stigma will be secondary outcomes. Data will be analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle. Participants will be assessed subsequently at baseline, at the end of the intervention period, and three months and 12 months post-intervention. DISCUSSION: This study will be one of the first intervention trials on bipolar disorder in a low-income country. If proven successful in reducing morbidity and increasing the quality of life in persons with bipolar disorder, it is anticipated that the psychoeducation program can be implemented at the district and community level and act as inspiration for other low-resource settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04671225. Registered on November 2020