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This study aims to examine the relationship between national cultural dimensions and the probability of a firm being externally audited. It uses a large set of representative micro-data from nearly 3000 firms across 34 industries in 13 countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East over the period 2008-2010, and Schwartz's cultural dimensions, namely autonomy, embeddedness, egalitarianism and hierarchy. The findings show that the relationship between firm audits and cultural autonomy and egalitarianism is strongly positive and statistically significant. Specifically, they show that an increase of one standard deviation (SD) in affective autonomy increases the probability that a firm will engage in an external audit by 3.37%. Along the same lines, a 1 SD increase in egalitarianism leads to a 8.36% increase in the likelihood of a firm engaging in an external audit. However, there is no clear evidence that embeddedness and hierarchy play a role in firms' external auditing trends. These findings remain robust to the use of several confounding factors at the firm and country levels. This research highlights its uniqueness in the choice of national culture as a determinant for the likelihood of external audits.

In today’s race to find ways to produce cheap and green hydrogen, the natural hydrogen wells in Bourakebougou offer a promising solution and are a good example of how H 2 can be produced in the natural environment. Not only has one well been successfully exploited to generate electricity for the local village, but twenty-four other exploratory boreholes have also demonstrated the presence of natural H 2 in the surrounding area. The Bourakebougou H 2 field offers a unique opportunity for geoscientists to determine the key characteristics of natural hydrogen reservoirs. This paper presents the coring, logging, and geochemistry studies that were performed to better characterize the nature of the Bourakebougou H 2 -bearing reservoirs. The shallowest main reservoir, in which there is the highest content of H 2 , is made of dolomitic carbonate (Neoproterozoic cap carbonate). These carbonates are largely karstified and show a high degree of heterogeneity in porosity (0.21–14.32%). Based on the analysis of the drilling imagery of the carbonated reservoirs, the accumulation of hydrogen occurs in the karst (void) representing a secondary porosity in the rock matrix. Other reservoirs, especially the deepest ones, are porous sandstone rocks with much more homogeneous porosities (4.52–6.37%) compared to the massive carbonates. For the wells analysed, the neutron tool reacted in a specific way when there is the presence of hydrogen. Hence, it stands out as being the primary tool to detect the presence of natural hydrogen beyond simple gas logging. When comparing a H 2 reservoir system to classical oil and gas reservoir systems, the results show that the hydrogen reservoir is a dynamic system that is progressively recharged in H 2 -rich gas at the production timescale.

In their seminal 2001 work, Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson (AJR) argued that institutions influence economic development, using the logarithm of settler mortality as an instrument to establish a causal effect. A number of economists and other social scientists have challenged this work in terms of both data and identification strategy. Some of those criticisms concerned the IV estimated coefficients and standard errors, which were nearly twice as large as the OLS coefficients and standard errors. The research uses machine learning to test the robustness of AJR’s findings. Using the AJR dataset, which I randomly divide into training data and testing data, I am able to predict the average protection against expropriation risk from settler mortality. These predicted values of property rights protection are then regressed on per capita GDP growth. The results indicate a strong and positive effect of property rights protection on growth, consistent with AJR’s earlier results. Moreover, the use of machine learning to obtain institutional values yields estimates close to the OLS estimates, unlike AJR. Removing African countries and Neo-European countries, such as Canada, Australia, USA, and New Zealand, does not alter the sign and significance of the coefficient of interest. These results suggest that machine learning can be helpful to economists facing data issues.

In this report from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola virus disease (EVD) developed in a young man, and he recovered after treatment with a monoclonal antibody. Six months later, EVD recrudesced, and he transmitted the virus to others and died from EVD.

Setting Since August 2016, after the Ebola outbreak, the Guinean National Tuberculosis Programme and Damien Foundation implemented the shorter treatment regimen (STR) for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the three MDR-TB sites of Conakry. Previously, the longer regimen was used to treat MDR-TB. Objectives In a post-Ebola context, with a weakened health system, we describe the MDR-TB treatment uptake, patients characteristics, treatment outcomes and estimate the effect of using the longer versus STR on having a programmatically adverse outcome. Design This is a retrospective cohort study in RR-TB patients treated with either the longer regimen or STR. Results In Conakry, in 2016 and 2017, 131 and 219 patients were diagnosed with rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB); and 108 and 163 started treatment, respectively. Of 271 patients who started treatment, 75 were treated with the longer regimen and 196 with the STR. Patients characteristics were similar regardless of the regimen except that the median age was higher among those treated with a longer regimen (30 years (IQR:24-38) versus 26 years (IQR:21-39) for the STR. Patients treated with a STR were more likely to obtain a programmatically favorable outcome (74.0% vs 58.7%, p = 0.01) as lost to follow up was higher among those treated with a longer regimen (20.0% vs 8.2%, p = 0.006). Patients on a longer regimen were more than 2 times more likely (aOR: 2.5; 95%CI:1.3,4.7) to have a programmatically adverse outcome as well as being 45 years or older (aOR: 2.8; 95%CI:1.3,6.2), HIV positive (aOR:3.3; 95%CI:1.6,6.6) and attendance at a clinic without NGO support (aOR:3.0; 95%:1.6,5.7). Conclusion In Guinea, patients treated with the STR were more likely to have a successful outcome than those treated with the longer MDR-TB treatment regimen. Lost to follow-up was higher in patients on the longer regimen. However, STR treatment outcomes were less good than those reported in the region.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a zoonotic disease that is commonly transmitted via inhaling aerosols, drinking unpasteurized milk, and eating raw meat. We use a fractional-order model with the Caputo sense to examine the evolution of bovine tuberculosis transmission in human and animal populations, including a vaccine compartment for humans. We derived and obtained the threshold quantity R0 to ascertain the illness state. We established conditions guaranteeing the asymptotic stability of the equilibria (locally and globally). Sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the factors that govern the dynamics of tuberculosis. The study demonstrates that the rate of human-to-animal transmission of tuberculosis and environmental pollution and the rate of bTB transmission between animals all affect tuberculosis transmission. However, as vaccination rates increase and fewer individuals consume contaminated environment products (such as meat, milk, and other dairy products), the disease becomes less common in humans. To manage bovine TB, it is advised that information programmes be implemented, the environment be monitored, infected persons be treated, contaminated animals be vaccinated, and contaminated animals be quarantined. The usefulness of the discovered theoretical results is demonstrated through numerical experiments.

Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STHs) and Schistosomiasis remain among the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where co-infection is common. In this work, we propose and analyze a deterministic co-infection model that explicitly incorporates two environmental reservoirs (soil and water), nonlinear forces of infection, and disease-induced mortality. The analytical results establish conditions for local and global stability of equilibria and show that persistence is strongly influenced by transmission pathways. Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis using partial rank correlation coefficients and Monte Carlo simulations identify contamination and recovery parameters as the most influential factors driving endemicity. Furthermore, numerical experiments, of optimal control analysis with the classical Runge–Kutta method, confirm the robustness of the computational approach. The study demonstrates that both infections can persist above threshold conditions, highlighting the importance of integrated intervention strategies. These results contribute new theoretical insights to the modelling of neglected tropical diseases and inform sustainable control policies.

Neonatal mortality in Guinea accounts for about 30% of all fatalities in children younger than five years. Countrywide, specialized neonatal intensive care is provided in one single clinic with markedly limited resources. To implement targeted measures, prospective data on patient characteristics and factors of neonatal death are needed. To determine the rates of morbidity and mortality, to describe clinical characteristics of admitted newborns requiring intensive care, to assess the quality of disease management, and to identify factors contributing to neonatal mortality. Half of the 168 admitted newborns underwent postnatal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Reasons for admission included respiratory distress (49.4%), poor postnatal adaptation (45.8%), prematurity (46.2%), and infections (37.1%). 101 newborns (61.2%) arrived in serious/critical general condition; 90 children (53.9%) showed clinical signs of neurological damage. Quality of care was poor: Only 59.4% of the 64 newborns admitted with hypothermia were externally heated; likewise, 57.1% of 45 jaundiced infants did not receive phototherapy. Death occurred in 56 children (33.3%) due to birth asphyxia (42.9%), prematurity (33.9%), and sepsis (12.5%). Newborns in serious/critical general condition at admission had about a fivefold higher hazard to die than those admitted in good condition (HR 5.21 95%-CI 2.42-11.25, p = <0.0001). Hypothermia at admission was also associated with a higher hazard of death (HR 2.00, 95%-CI 1.10-3.65, p = 0.023). Neonatal mortality was strikingly high. Birth asphyxia, prematurity, and infection accounted for 89.3% of death, aggravated by poor quality of in-hospital care. Children with serious general condition at admission had poor chances of survival. The whole concept of perinatal care in Guinea requires reconsideration.

Chikungunya virus has caused millions of cases worldwide over the past 20 years, with recent outbreaks in Kedougou region in the southeastern Senegal, West Africa. Genomic characterization highlights that an ongoing epidemic in Kedougou in 2023 is not due to an introduction event but caused by the re-emergence of an endemic strain evolving linearly in a sylvatic context.

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the emerging zoonotic diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. Domestic pigs are considered to be the main reservoir for this infectious disease. A third of the world’s population is thought to have been exposed to the virus. The zoonotic transmission of the HEV raises serious zoonotic and food safety concerns for the general public. This is a major public health issue in both developed and developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 44,000 people died in 2015 as a result of HEV infection. East and South Asia have the highest prevalence of this disease overall. In this study, we proposed, developed, and analyzed the transmission routes of the infection using a fractional-order derivative approach. The existence, stability, and uniqueness of solutions were established using the approach and concept in Banach space. Local and global stability was determined using the Hyers–Ulam (HU) stability approach. Numerical simulation was conducted using existing parameter values, and it was established that, as the susceptible human population declines, the number of infected human populations rises with a change in fractional order θ^. When the susceptible pig population increases, the number of infected pig populations rises with a change in θ^. It was observed that a few variations in the fractional derivative order did not alter the function’s overall behavior with the results of numerical simulations. Moreover, as the number of recovered human populations increases, there is a corresponding increase in the population of recovered pigs with a change in θ^. The exponential increase in the infected pig population can be controlled by treatment of the infected pigs and prevention of the susceptible pigs. The authors recommend policymakers, and stakeholders prioritize the fight against the virus by enforcing the prevention of humans and treatment of infected pigs. The model can be extended to optimal control and cost-effectiveness analysis to determine the most effective control strategy that comes with less cost in the combat of the disease.