The International University of Africa (Arabic: جامعة افريقيا العالمية) is a private university in Khartoum, Sudan. It is a member of the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World. The university has faculties of Education and Humanities, Shariah and Islamic Studies, of Pure and Applied Sciences, Engineering and medicine.The university has its origins in the Islamic African Centre, established in Khartoum in 1977 with financial help from Saudi Arabia and other Arab States of the Persian Gulf to train preachers and educate young African Muslims and "imbue them with the Salafist view of Islam." In 1992, the military government of Colonel Omar Al-Bashir upgraded the institute to a university. Although the word "Islamic" was dropped from the title, Islamic studies are an important part of the curriculum. The university has been active in Islamic higher education in sub-Saharan Africa since it was created.Due to its geographic location and cultural history, Sudan has been hosting a steady flow of people from neighboring countries, who were either in pursuit of religious knowledge or were on their way to perform the hajj pilgrimage. (Port Sudan lies directly across the Red Sea from Mecca's port city of Jeddah.) Some pilgrims stayed behind, either with a sheikh (religious leader) or fleeing from religious persecution, which set in as a result of European colonization. Others were forced by incessant wars to seek refuge and education in Sudan. As of 2010 the university had almost 6000 students. Its 93-acre campus is located in the South-Eastern part of Khartoum State.
Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) are critically threatened by the Barren Plateau (BP) phenomenon. In this work, we introduce the H-EFT Variational Ansatz (H-EFT-VA), an architecture inspired by Effective Field Theory (EFT). By enforcing a hierarchical "UV-cutoff" on initialization, we theoretically restrict the circuit's state exploration, preventing the formation of approximate unitary 2-designs. We provide a rigorous proof that this localization guarantees an inverse-polynomial lower bound on the gradient variance: Var[∂ θ] ∈ Ω(1/poly(N)). Crucially, unlike approaches that avoid BPs by limiting entanglement, we demonstrate that H-EFT-VA maintains volume-law entanglement and near-Haar purity, ensuring sufficient expressibility for complex quantum states. Extensive benchmarking across 16 experiments – including Transverse Field Ising and Heisenberg XXZ models – confirms a 109x improvement in energy convergence and a 10.7x increase in ground-state fidelity over standard Hardware-Efficient Ansatze (HEA), with a statistical significance of p < 10^-88.
Background: Malaria, a life-threatening disease, remains a major public health challenge, particularly in Sudan, where it causes significant morbidity and mortality. This review aimed to comprehensively review and explore malaria research in Sudan in the Scopus database and identify cited articles from 1956 to 2024. Methods: A bibliometric and thematic analysis was conducted to explore research on malaria in Sudan. On May 18, 2025, we searched the Scopus database for documents (reviews OR articles) published between 1956 and 2024, using a Boolean search strategy with title-based terms. The aim was to gain comprehensive insights into the growth of malaria research in Sudan, identify key contributions from authors, countries, and institutions, and highlight emerging research topics. Data were analyzed using VOS viewer (version 1.6.6) and the Biblioshiny tool. Results: A total of 252 documents on malaria in Sudan were analyzed, showing a steady publication trend from 1978 to 2022, with a peak in 2004 (17 documents). Citation impact peaked in 2014 (3.6 citations/article) and declined in 2023. Sudan was the leading contributor (138 articles, 55%), with Adam I. from the University of Khartoum as the most prolific author (90 publications, h-index 26). “Malaria Journal” was the most active journal among 105 journals (36 articles, JIF 2.4). “Malaria,” “Sudan,” and “Plasmodium falciparum” were the most explored keywords by authors. Thematic mapping indicated that the emerging themes focused on “thrombocytopenia,” “Anopheles stephensi,” and “antibodies. Keyword analysis did not highlight “ACT-resistant malaria” as an emerging or high-centrality topic. Conclusion: National and international efforts are needed for restarting malaria control in Sudan. Our findings provide an overview of the global status and potential trends of malaria in Sudan. This can assist in exploring the knowledge structure and offers insights for future research on malaria in Sudan.
This paper is premised on the findings of a study that aimed at investigating factors influencing the performance of the Order of Saint Augustine agricultural project in Evurore ward, Embu County. The specific objectives of the study were: to evaluate the influence of participation by key institutional community stakeholders on the performance of the OSA Project in Evurore ward, and to examine the influence of farmer group participation on the performance of the OSA Project in Evurore ward. The study was motivated by the growing concerns of the failed agricultural project performance of the OSA agricultural project in Mbeere North, Embu County. The study was based on participatory theory and employed a descriptive research design. The target population consisted of 300 farmers participating in the OSA agricultural project. The study collected quantitative data through structured questionnaires. Inferential and descriptive statistical techniques were used to analyse the quantitative data using SPSS, such as mean, percentages and standard deviation and were presented in tables. The results showed evidence of a significant positive relationship of farmer group participation (P =0.000, r =0.793) and project performance. Additionally, there was positive relationship between community stakeholders (p =0.000, r =0.51) and project performance. The study recommended that policymakers should strategically emphasise farmer group participation and stakeholder participation to further improve the performance of the OSA agricultural projects in Evurore ward, Embu County
Objective:To systematically synthesize evidence from RCTs that evaluate the efficacy and safety of balanced crystalloids compared with normal saline for initial fluid resuscitation of patients with DKA. Methods:This systematic review and meta-analysis were performed considering PRISMA guidelines and was registered in PROSPERO. A comprehensive search was performed to identify RCTs comparing balanced crystalloids with normal saline in adults and children with DKA. The risk of bias was assessed by using Cochrane RoB 2 tool. A random-effects meta-analysis was performed using R software to calculate pooled Mean Differences for continuous outcomes and Odds Ratios for dichotomous outcomes with 95% Confidence Intervals. Results:Eleven RCTs were included. In the quantitative synthesis of six RCTs (n = 491) using continuous time-to-event data, balanced crystalloids were not associated with a statistically significant reduction in time to DKA resolution compared with normal saline (Mean Difference [MD] = -1.50 hours; 95% CI: -3.79 to 0.79; p=0.15), with moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 36.2%). The 95% prediction interval ranged from -5.44 to 2.44 hours. However, balanced crystalloids resulted in a significantly greater increase in serum bicarbonate at 12 hours (MD = +2.50 mmol/L; 95% CI: 1.51 to 3.48; p=0.004; I2 = 0.0%). Subgroup analyses by fluid type, DKA severity, and age group showed no significant subgroup differences. Conclusion:Initial fluid resuscitation with balanced crystalloids was not associated with a shorter time to DKA resolution compared with normal saline, and they were associated with a rapid increase in serum bicarbonate levels; however, this biochemical improvement did not translate into a shorter time to DKA resolution or other clinical benefits. The choice of crystalloids for initial DKA resuscitation remains an area of clinical equipoise because of the substantial heterogeneity and methodological limitations of the available evidence, emphasizing the need for further high-quality research.
Background Indigenous weather forecasting plays a critical role in supporting climate-sensitive livelihoods in Eastern Mount Kenya, yet there is limited empirical understanding of the methods, perceived accuracy, and social mechanisms sustaining their use. This study examines these practices and their contribution to community resilience under increasing climate variability. Methods We conducted 81 in-depth interviews with elders aged 65 years and above across the region. Thematic analysis was applied to coded data to identify patterns, indicator types, and perceptions of reliability and resilience, while comparing insights across communities. Results The study makes three original contributions to ethno-meteorological knowledge which include atmospheric, biological and celestial indicators. In addition, it identifies somatic forecasting as a dominant and systematic knowledge domain, conceptualizing the human body as an environmental sensor within indigenous climate knowledge systems. It also demonstrates that declining reliability of indigenous indicators arises from ecological disruptions, highlighting the vulnerability of indigenous knowledge systems to environmental change. Further, the findings reveal a scale mismatch between scientific forecasts and community-level decision needs, showing that hybrid approaches integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge are more trusted and actionable at the local level. Additional insights include the role of elders as informal climate governance actors and the emergence of intergenerational knowledge loss as a key dimension of climate vulnerability. Conclusion By conceptualizing indigenous weather forecasting as a dynamic, socially embedded, and ecologically grounded system, this study provides empirical evidence that can inform the development of a framework for locally responsive hybrid climate approaches. The results indicate the value of systematic documentation and cultural preservation and point to the potential benefits of integrating such knowledge into policy and climate-service design to enhance adaptive capacity and sustain community-based climate resilience.
