Development of a software system from existing components can surely have various benefits, but can also entail a series of problems. One type of problems is caused by a limited exchange of information between the developer and user of a component. A limited exchange and thereby a lack of information can have various consequences, among them the requirement to test a component prior to its integration into a software system. A lack of information cannot only make test prior to integration necessary, it can also complicate this tasks. However, difficulties in testing can be avoided if certain provisions to increase testability are taken beforehand. This article describes a new form of improving testability of, particularly commercial, components, the self-testing COTS components (STECC) strategy.

Master of Public Health - MPH / Background: The identification of undiagnosed HIV positive individuals through HIV testing services is one of the key measures in ensuring that the UNAIDS/ WHO 90 90 90 targets are achieved by the year 2020. The identification and subsequent initiation of HIV positive individuals on ART helps to minimise or prevent HIV transmission following viral suppression. Around 25% of people living with HIV globally are unaware of their positive status. In many countries, critical gaps exist in HIV services including prevention, testing and treatment. In Africa, the East and Southern region has a high burden of HIV/ AIDS where 50% of people are living with HIV, with 800,000 new infections in 2017. Despite concerted efforts in rolling out HIV testing services in Zimbabwe, a significant number of the population, especially men and young people, remain with an unknown HIV status, which is hindering progress towards the control and prevention of the HIV pandemic. A recent study confirmed that HIV testing in men is lower as compared to women. Consequently, progress is slower in trying to achieve the year 2020 milestone. The identification of suitable options for reaching out to these groups and the general population is important to achieve a reduction HIV prevalence. HIV self-testing oral fluid sample is thought to have the capacity to increase uptake of HIV testing. However, it still requires evidence on its acceptability and feasibility for those with undiagnosed HIV. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of the accessibility and feasibility HIV self-testing kits for individuals who received and used this method in Neta ward in Mberengwa District, Zimbabwe. The study identified some key factors that led to individuals accepting the kits and using them. The findings of this study will hopefully be able to inform policy makers’ decision-making about the importance of rolling out HST in the country.

Yes / Previous research has suggested that older adults who are more cognitively active in later life show an attenuation in cognitive decline in healthy aging. Furthermore, cognitive intervention studies have indicated that ecologically valid cognitive interventions can promote cognitive functioning but only in taskspecific abilities. Since it has been shown that the art of self‐testing can promote metacognitive awareness in older adults, attempting cryptic crosswords may be used as a cognitive intervention for older adults. In Experiments 1 and 2, a questionnaire technique was used and demonstrated that older adults became more aware of their episodic memory deficits after attempting cryptic crossword clues. Based on this, Experiment 3 used an intervention technique over a six‐week period to investigate whether such awareness enabled older adults to improve cognitive functioning in a number of domains. This experiment used a revolutionary within‐subjects technique to control for potential mediating factors. The results supported previous research in that older adults showed an increase in the monitoring pathway of metacognition but were unable to use this enhanced awareness to change their behaviour when undertaking objective tests of cognitive ability. Post‐hoc analysis highlighted subgroups of older adults who showed improvements in certain cognitive abilities, such as episodic memory functioning and judgement of learning abilities. The standard clinical trial technique might be inappropriate when testing either cognitive interventions or pharmacological tests. The within‐subjects approach could be adapted to investigate follow‐up effects of different types of interventions including ecologically valid cognitive interventions. / Harold Hyman Wingate Foundation

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Objectives: To determine if there is a relationship between the number of self-testing attempts and subsequent exam grade in a pharmacy course. Method: A total of 1,342 multiple choice questions were developed for pharmacy students to self-test for a pathophysiology course. Prior to each examination, students were allowed to take online quizzes which were randomly generated and related to the exam content. Quizzes were scored immediately, and students were shown the incorrect questions along with all answer choices. A matrix of intercorrelations and repeated measures ANOVA, with post hoc tests, was generated using PASW Statistics Version 19 (IBM, Armonk, NY) to evaluate all variables. Results: 77 of 79 students (97.5%) participated, resulting in a total of 7,042 attempts. Non-participants were assigned a zero. There were variations in both the average practice attempts (18 – 30) and subsequent exam grade (82 – 90) on the 4 exams. However, a significant correlation (p ≤ 0.05) existed between number of attempts and each exam grade (R = 0.478, 0.426, 0.385, and 0.218). For each exam, students were stratified into the upper and lower 50%, according to the number of self-test attempts. On all four exams the lower 50%, based solely on attempts, scored significantly lower (p ≤ 0.05) on the subsequent exam based on a two group T-test. Implications: Although self-testing strategies increase recall ability, this strategy is uncommon in pharmacy education. These results suggest that the number of self-testing attempts improves subsequent exam grade, regardless of the score for the self tests. Read More: http://www.ajpe.org/doi/full/10.5688/ajpe76599

<p>As of 2021, 38.4 million people worldwide are living with Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with eastern and southern Africa having the highest prevalence. The efficacy of treatment is determined by identifying acute HIV infections (AHI) and prompting early antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation to achieve viral suppression and reduce the risk of transmission. Existing rapid tests that detect host antibodies are affected by long seroconversions which allow the viruses to remain undetected until long after infection. On the contrary, highly sensitive nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) based assays, serving as the gold standard for detection are restricted by their long turnaround time and high cost of implementation thus, restricting their use in low resource settings. Further, drug resistance cases and patient non-compliance to treatment may lead to HIV progression to aids; therefore, effective viral load monitoring is a critical component in the HIV care continuum. To address the gaps in viral load monitoring and early HIV detection, I propose to develop assays for handheld self-test platforms to detect low concentrations of HIV via two different approaches: 1) I will optimize an existing NAAT - based assay to semi-quantitatively detect HIV particles that were spiked in clinical samples and 2) I will Investigate the binding kinetics between HIV p24 antigen and Anti-HIV-1 p24 Antibody using the principle of Bio-layer Interferometry. Thus, I will lay the foundation for the development of a novel and highly sensitive p24 detection assay. Overall, this work will enable detection of ahi detection as well as support people living with HIV (PLHIV) management, all while remaining connected to healthcare and provider support. </p> <p><br></p>

Objectives. To determine if student self-testing improves performance during a doctor of pharmacy course. Methods. Students were given access to online quizzes with a large pool of randomly selected questions specific to upcoming examination content. Quizzes were electronically scored immediately upon completion and students were provided corrective feedback. Results. Examination scores following implementation of the practice quizzes were significantly higher in all but the last testing period. The upper fiftieth percentile of students scored higher on both the practice quizzes and subsequent examinations in all but the fourth testing period. Conclusions. Providing pharmacy students with self-testing opportunities could increase their retention of course material and provide feedback to both students and educators regarding learning, as well as provide students with a measure of their metacognition.

Objective: To determine if the frequency of self-testing of course material prior to actual examination improves examination scores, regardless of the actual scores on the self-testing. Methods: Practice quizzes were randomly generated from a total of 1342 multiple-choice questions in pathophysiology and made available online for student self-testing. Intercorrelations, 2-way repeated measures ANOVA with post hoc tests, and 2-group comparisons following rank ordering, were conducted. Results: During each of 4 testing blocks, more than 85% of students took advantage of the self-testing process for a total of 7042 attempts. A consistent significant correlation (p≤0.05) existed between the number of practice quiz attempts and the subsequent examination scores. No difference in the number of quiz attempts was demonstrated compared to the first testing block. Exam scores for the first and second testing blocks were both higher than those for third and fourth blocks. Conclusion: Although self-testing strategies increase retrieval and retention, they are uncommon in pharmacy education. The results suggested that the number of self-testing attempts alone improved subsequent examination scores, regardless of the score for self-tests.

Objectives: To determine if benefit exists in allowing students to self-test over relevant material as they progress through a professional course. Method: A total of 1,342 multiple choice questions were developed for pharmacy students to self-test for a pathophysiology course. Prior to each examination, students were allowed to take online quizzes which were randomly generated and related to the exam content. Quizzes were scored immediately, and students were shown the incorrect questions along with all answer choices. A matrix of intercorrelations and repeated measures ANOVA were generated using PASW Statistics Version 19 (IBM, Armonk, NY) to evaluate number of quiz attempts, highest attempt score, lowest attempt score, average attempt score, last attempt score, undergraduate GPA, and composite PCAT in relation to exam grade. Results: Seventy-seven of 79 students took advantage of self-testing and completed a total of 7,042 attempts. For the four exams, average quiz attempts score had the highest correlation, R = 0.591, 0.670, 0.550, and 0.373 respectively, to exam score (p ≤ 0.001 for each comparison). For each student who took advantage of self-testing, a paired analysis revealed exam score was significantly higher on the first three exams when compared with quiz attempts average. Implications: Literature indicates self-testing strategies increase recall ability as compared to more commonly employed study techniques. Self-testing opportunities in the pharmacy curriculum could increase student retention of course materials and provide feedback to educators regarding student learning while offering students an indication of their comprehension.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo realizar um estudo do problema de teste de circuitos analógicos e mistos, propondo uma metodologia de teste e apresentando uma ferramenta para geração automática de vetores de teste (ATPG). A necessidade deste tipo de pesquisa torna-se clara no momento em que um número cada vez maior de aplicações requer algum tipo de interação entre dispositivos analógicos e digitais, não só em se tratando de placas de circuito impresso, mas também em um mesmo circuito integrado. A metodologia prevê a detecção de falhas paramétricas, de grandes desvios e catastróficas em circuitos lineares e não-lineares. Além disso. a ocorrência de falhas de interação é considerada, assim como a definição de vetores para diagnóstico que garantam máxima cobertura de falhas. Inicialmente são apresentados alguns aspectos teóricos relacionados ao teste deste tipo de circuitos (complexidade do teste, abordagens existentes e trabalhos correlatos). A seguir, são apresentados o modelo de falhas utilizado e a metodologia proposta, bem como a ferramenta de ATPG. A técnica é aplicada, então, a dois circuitos. O processo de geração dos vetores de teste é explicado e exemplos de vetores gerados são apresentados. Posteriormente, uma proposta de automatização do método é feita, acompanhada da descrição de algumas ferramentas comerciais utilizadas. Por fim, os resultados e conclusões são apresentados. / This work aims at studying the testing problems related to analog and mixedsignal circuits. This kind of research is very useful nowadays, since there is a great demand for circuits that need some kind of interaction between analog and digital blocks. This document presents a method and an automatic test pattern generation tool aplicable to the detection of soft, large and hard fault in linear and non-linear circuits. This method considers, also, interaction faults and computes diagnose vectors that garantee maximal fault coverage. At first. a brief review of methods. approaches and related works is presented. Then. the fault model used and the test methodology are defined. and an ATPG tool is proposed. Next, the ATPG algorithm is applied to a linear and to a non-linear circuit. The test vector generation process and the test vectors computed are then shown. After that a way to automatize the ATPG tool is discussed under the light of those commercial tools that were used in this work. Finally. the conclusions and results are presented.