Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) analysis is a method that predicts the genetic risk of an individual towards targeted traits. Even when there are no significant markers, it gives evidence of a genetic effect beyond the results of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Moreover, it selects  single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that  contribute to the disease with low effect size  making it more precise at individual level risk prediction. PRS  analysis addresses the shortfall of GWAS by taking into account the SNPs/alleles with  low effect size but play an indispensable role to the observed phenotypic/trait variance.  PRS analysis has  applications that investigate the genetic basis of several traits, which includes rare diseases. However, the accuracy of PRS analysis depends on the genomic data of the underlying population. For instance, several studies  show   that obtaining higher prediction power of PRS analysis is challenging for non-Europeans. In this manuscript, we review the conventional PRS methods and their application to sub-Saharan African communities. We conclude that  lack of sufficient GWAS data and tools is  the limiting factor of applying PRS analysis to sub-Saharan populations.   We recommend developing Africa-specific PRS methods and tools for estimating and analyzing  African population data   for clinical  evaluation of PRSs of interest and predicting  rare diseases.

Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) analysis is a method that predicts the genetic risk of an individual towards targeted traits. Even when there are no significant markers, it gives evidence of a genetic effect beyond the results of Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Moreover, it selects  single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that  contribute to the disease with low effect size  making it more precise at individual level risk prediction. PRS  analysis addresses the shortfall of GWAS by taking into account the SNPs/alleles with  low effect size but play an indispensable role to the observed phenotypic/trait variance.  PRS analysis has  applications that investigate the genetic basis of several traits, which includes rare diseases. However, the accuracy of PRS analysis depends on the genomic data of the underlying population. For instance, several studies  show   that obtaining higher prediction power of PRS analysis is challenging for non-Europeans. In this manuscript, we review the conventional PRS methods and their application to sub-Saharan African communities. We conclude that  lack of sufficient GWAS data and tools is  the limiting factor of applying PRS analysis to sub-Saharan populations.   We recommend developing Africa-specific PRS methods and tools for estimating and analyzing  African population data   for clinical  evaluation of PRSs of interest and predicting  rare diseases.

Cloud users have recently expanded dramatically. The cloud service providers (CSPs) have also increased and have therefore made their infrastructure more complex. The complex infrastructure needs to be distributed appropriately to various users. Also, the advances in cloud computing have led to the development of interconnected cloud computing environments (ICCEs). For instance, ICCEs include the cloud hybrid, intercloud, multi-cloud, and federated clouds. However, the sharing of resources is not facilitated by specific proprietary technologies and access interfaces used by CSPs. Several CSPs provide similar services but have different access patterns. Data from various CSPs must be obtained and processed by cloud users. To ensure that all ICCE tenants (users and CSPs) benefit from the best CSPs, efficient resource management was suggested. Besides, it is pertinent that cloud resources be monitored regularly. Cloud monitoring is a service that works as a third-party entity between customers and CSPs. This paper discusses a complete cloud monitoring survey in ICCE, focusing on cloud monitoring and its significance. Several current open-source monitoring solutions are discussed. A taxonomy is presented and analyzed for cloud resource management.

Cloud computing is a technology that allows dynamic and flexible computing capability and storage through on-demand delivery and pay-as-you-go services over the Internet. This technology has brought significant advances in the Information Technology (IT) domain. In the last few years, the evolution of cloud computing has led to the development of new technologies such as cloud federation, edge computing, and fog computing. However, with the development of Internet of Things (IoT), several challenges have emerged with these new technologies. Therefore, this paper discusses each of the emerging cloud-based technologies, as well as their architectures, opportunities, and challenges. We present how cloud computing evolved from one paradigm to another through the interplay of benefits such as improvement in computational resources through the combination of the strengths of various Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), decrease in latency, improvement in bandwidth, and so on. Furthermore, the paper highlights the application of different cloud paradigms in the healthcare ecosystem.