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Introduction: In this paper, we analyzed the study of a mathematical model of non-linear differential equation on the effect of HIV/AIDS disease among unaware HIV/AIDS-infected population. Material and methods: Population was divided into four categories, including HIV-negative individuals, unaware HIV-positive cases, aware HIV-positive, and AIDS patients. The model was investigated numerically and analytically using fourth-order Runge-Kutta approach and homotopy perturbation method (HPM). Results: We have discussed the parameter variation graphically. Conclusions: Determining the dynamics of HIV prevalence and investigating the effect of each parameter on the governing equation can be simple with analytical solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To design and develop a mobile application for pre-school readiness of children with autism and also to identify their learning pattern. Based on strong foundation of functional academics, we have developed a mobile application for providing an early educational intervention program to the children with autism. Three successive software trials have been conducted among 31 children with autism of age group of three to 10 years. The mobile app has been provided to educators and parents and they have been allowed to supervise the children during their learning phase for eight to 10 weeks. The imprint of learning pattern is recorded and learning progress profile is generated for individual child. Data analysis of learning progress profile shows that 90% of the participants preferred drag and drop or simple touch approach over conventional methods practised during classroom teachings. More than 84% of the children are found to adapt pre-requisite skills for writing like scribbling, tracing, dots joining, copying, etc. after using the app on their tablet who are reluctant to hold pencil and paper otherwise. Twenty-five percent of the participants are reported to reciprocate the greeting etiquettes in class such as greeting teachers and their peers. The mobile application made a valuable contribution to early intervention program for children with autism by imparting appropriate learning opportunities readily available to them. Performance metrics underlying each activity form a strong base of identification of learning patterns and formulation of revised individualized education plan (IEP). Children with autism need the mobile application as an educational intervention program for it is readily available and user friendly. Educators need the mobile application to quantify the performance parameters and there by monitor/evaluate the progress of the child. Overall, the present research has aimed to develop an easy reach app by which educating as well as handling challenging behaviour of the children with autism would be easier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study compared the achievements of higher secondary level students before and during the COVID 19 pandemic in five subjects-English, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. This study was conducted on higher secondary level students from Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), Assam, India. Dichotomous variables like rural and urban, tribal and non-tribal are considered for sample collection. A stratified random sampling technique is used for data collection. When five subjects are considered as a unit, the Mahalanobis Distance (MD) is used to measure the difference in dynamical character of achievements. There is a significant difference in the achievement of students between pre-COVID 19 and during COVID 19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creation of academic & research posters gives the students an opportunity to develop indispensable skills like inquisitiveness, critical thinking, analytical thinking and dissemination of findings in creative way. This paper describes the formative use of poster presentation in a course of applied mathematics in the first year of the undergraduate engineering program in the western part of India. The authors have designed the internal assessment through poster presentation (IATPP) based on the ARCS model of motivation that also encourages students to find relevance of mathematics with other fields, seeds the foundation of research in their foundation years of engineering and develops a habit of self-learning and peer learning. The authors then discuss their experience of executing this novel approach of using poster presentation to bridge the gap between mathematics and core engineering courses through IATPP. Students' perceptions and results have proved IATPP an interesting, engaging, encouraging, motivating and challenging online assessment strategy that exposes them to mathematical concepts, helps them relate mathematics with other fields and empowers them with several vital life-long learning skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian tradition in mathematics is long and glorious. It dates to the earliest times, and indeed many of the Indian discoveries from a period starting 5000 years ago correspond rather naturally to modern mathematical results. Celebration of Indian mathematics needs to consider the personalities among ancient mathematicians who laid a solid foundation for modern thinking. Our main purpose here is, by presenting very briefly some of the main contributions of ancient Indian mathematicians and astronomers, to argue and convince the reader that before the great Ramanujan, there have been thousands of years of rich mathematical discoveries in India and those personalities’ work also needs to be honored on Indian Mathematics Day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analysis 100 Indian high productivity organizations involved in mathematics research, using publications data indexed in Scopus database from 2005-14. It identified the overall strength and weakness of these 100 organizations, in terms of selective qualitative and quantitative indicators. The study concludes that institutes of national importance model of funding for research have shown comparatively better performance both in terms of qualitative and quantitative parameters. The publication also lists suggestions for growth and development of mathematics research in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the text of the Presidential address given at the Annual meeting of the Indian Mathematical Society on December 04, 2021. It takes a stock of how we, as a nation, are doing in mathematics as India celebrates its 75th anniversary of Independence soon. This also involves thinking of the profession of Mathematics, and the changing scenario in it, which I touch upon in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educationists and the statesmen of different eras have casted mathematics education in different forms, and it has swayed to and from the elites to the commoners several times. The vision of the educationists always took tolls on mathematics curriculum, which survived the maximum change during the past one century. Several unorganized or partially organized ventures of mathematics education planning were seen in the pre-colonial era whereas the colonial period displayed some extremely organized, target-oriented decisions regarding the education system as a whole, taking mathematics in and out of focus. In this article, we have focused on the change in mathematics curriculum at the secondary school level in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voice of disabled students in higher education (HE) has been widely explored in the global North but relatively little is known about the experiences of their counterparts in the global South. The paper attempts to address this lacuna by focusing on disabled students in HE in India. A part of the author's doctoral study in 2013–14 explored the lived experiences and aspirations of 29 students with a visual impairment using phenomenological methodology. Their access to courses and subsequently, career opportunities were found to be restricted by an interplay of systemic exclusion, lack of information, internalised oppression, pedagogy, and employment opportunities. While disability legislation in India focuses on widening participation in HE, the issue of access to courses for students with a visual impairment has received little attention. This paper emphasises the importance of facilitating their access to their desired courses in HE and to this end, provision of support in school. This article highlights the experiences of students with a visual impairment regarding enrolling in different courses in higher education (HE) in India. The research found that four main factors prevented many students with a visual impairment from pursuing science-and mathematics-based courses in HE. These were i) exclusion from science and mathematics in early education, ii) inadequate support systems, iii) inaccessible teaching practices, and iv) limited work opportunities. Little or no support and motivation was available for them to study these subjects. The research recommended that HE authorities must recognise the ability of students with a visual impairment to learn visual-based subjects. It also highlighted the need to provide support for learning mathematics and science to these students in school so that they can study mathematics- and science-based courses in HE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present situation, the sustainable development goal on "Gender Equality" (SDG 5) is a challenging problem over the entire globe, also in India. In this paper, the fuzzy graph theory is used to analyse the overall performance of India for the SGD 5. To solve this problem, the new concept of pseudo-vertex-covering set of a fuzzy graph to make a well coverage of the entire fuzzy graph with the combined coverage of vertex-covering set and underlying edge-covering set of the fuzzy graph is defined. With this new covering concept of pseudo-vertex-covering set of fuzzy graphs, an analysis of the performance status of India for SDG 5 is made with the individual performance status of all the states/UTs of India. We show a nice covering of the whole country by some particular states/UTs which are actively helping to make the pseudo-vertex-covering of the transformed form of the graph of India as a fuzzy graph. At last, a comparison between the covering score and index score for SDG 5 is given. Here, covering score is a new term in fuzzy graph theory for coverage of a fuzzy graph by some vertices with underlying some edges. Also, an analysis is given which reflecting a clean idea of the methodology for the performance status of India and these help to find the self-governing states/UTs in India for a better performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing population age structure has a significant influence on the economy, society, and numerous other aspects of a country. This paper has innovatively applied the method of compositional data forecasting for the prediction of population age changes of the young (aged 0–14), the middle-aged (aged 15–64), and the elderly (aged older than 65) in China, India, and Vietnam by 2030 based on data from 1960 to 2016. To select the best-suited forecasting model, an array of data transformation approaches and forecasting models have been extensively employed, and a large number of comparisons have been made between the aforementioned methods. The best-suited model for each country is identified considering the root mean squared error and mean absolute percent error values from the compositional data. As noted in this study, first and foremost, it is predicted that by the year 2030, China will witness the disappearance of population dividend and get mired in an aging problem far more severe than that of India or Vietnam. Second, Vietnam’s trend of change in population age structure resembles that of China, but the country will sustain its good health as a whole. Finally, the working population of India demonstrates a strong rising trend, indicating that the age structure of the Indian population still remains relatively “young”. Meanwhile, the continuous rise in the proportion of elderly population and the gradual leveling off growth of the young population have nevertheless become serious problems in the world. The present paper attempts to offer crucial insights into the Asian population size, labor market and urbanization, and, moreover, provides suggestions for a sustainable global demographic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the problem of establishing a network among the stocks of a market at high frequency level and give an application to program trading. Our work uses high frequency data from the National Stock Exchange, India, for the year 2014. To begin, we analyse the spectrum of the correlation matrix to establish the presence of linear relations amongst the stock returns. A comparison of correlations with pairwise mutual information shows the further existence of non-linear relations which are not captured by correlation. We also see that the non-linear relations are more pronounced at the high frequency level in comparison to the daily returns used in earlier work. We provide two applications of this approach. First, we construct minimal spanning trees for the stock network based on mutual information and study their topology. The year 2014 saw the conduct of general elections in India and the data allows us to explore their impact on aspects of the network, such as the scale-free property and sectorial clusters. Second, having established the presence of non-linear relations, we would like to be able to exploit them. Previous authors have suggested that peripheral stocks in the network would make good proxies for the Markowitz portfolio but with a much smaller number of stocks. We show that peripheral stocks selected using mutual information perform significantly better than ones selected using correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the theory of professional competence in teaching of mathematics developed through a cross-cultural examination of teaching practices of mathematics teachers recommended as competent by their principals in two selected high-achieving high schools of India and the United States. A detailed study of teacher cases from both of the research settings yielded a rich conceptualization of the relationship between teachers' professional knowledge base and professional competence in the teaching of mathematics. The substantive theory explains the processes of both the development and the display of professional competence and enables predictions of the ways teachers would most likely utilize to meet the performance expectations of their work environments. The study makes a unique contribution to the field of teacher education and views professional competence as a dynamic interplay of various components of teachers' professional knowledge base activated in actual teaching situations in the context of the classroom, school, and wider social culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are numerous methods available for estimation of time since death (TSD) in early post-mortem interval. But, precise determination of TSD is always a big challenge. There are some methods which can be employed for precise determination of TSD, but those have been used in temperate climatic region, such as Henssge nomogram method and Moritz formula. This paper is a humble trial to test the reliability of Moritz formula in tropical climate of central India. Methodology: A cross sectional study was carried out on 173 randomly selected cadavers which were brought for autopsy in department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, Gandhi medical college, Bhopal. After collecting routine data like age, gender, height, weight etc. following data were also collected -- ambient room temperature, rectal temperature, known TSD, determined TSD by Moritz formula. Data were analysed by using SPSS software. Conclusion: Moritz rule of thumb--method A and method B is a reliable method for determination of TSD in 24 hour time frame and in all time slots except that Moritz-A rule cannot be used in 0-6 hour time slot, both in <23 °C & >23 °C ambient temperatures in the present study circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we decompose the difference between the weight of a child and the weight of a reference child into the difference between the height of the child and the height of the reference child and the difference between the weight per unit height of the child and the weight per unit height of the reference child. The decomposition provides the theoretical justification to the classification of the nutritional status proposed by Svedberg and by Nandy et al. An application of the decomposition framework to the Indian data shows that the level, depth and severity of the faltering of the growth of the body mass in Indian children are primarily due to the level, depth and severity of the faltering of the ponderal growth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Poverty affects many people, but the ramifications and impacts affect all aspects of society. Information about the incidence of poverty is therefore an important parameter of the population for policy analysis and decision making. In order to provide specific, targeted solutions when addressing poverty disadvantage small area statistics are needed. Surveys are typically designed and planned to produce reliable estimates of population characteristics of interest mainly at higher geographic area such as national and state level. Sample sizes are usually not large enough to provide reliable estimates for disaggregated analysis. In many instances estimates are required for areas of the population for which the survey providing the data was unplanned. Then, for areas with small sample sizes, direct survey estimation of population characteristics based only on the data available from the particular area tends to be unreliable. This paper describes an application of small area estimation (SAE) approach to improve the precision of estimates of poverty incidence at district level in the State of Bihar in India by linking data from the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey 2011–12 of NSSO and the Population Census 2011. The results show that the district level estimates generated by SAE method are more precise and representative. In contrast, the direct survey estimates based on survey data alone are less stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migrant labourers living in the slums of urban and industrial patches across India make up a key sub-population so far controlling Tuberculosis (TB) in the country is concerned. This is because many TB patients from these communities- remain under reached by the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) of India. This marginalized community usually seeks early-stage healthcare from “friendly neighbourhood” non-formal health providers (NFHPs). Because, RNTCP has limited capacity to involve the NFHPs, an implementation research project was conceived, whereby an external partner would engage with the NFHPs to enable them to identify early TB symptomatics from this key sub-population who would be then tested using Xpert MTB/RIF technology. Diagnosed TB cases among them would be referred promptly to RNTCP for treatment. This paper aimed to describe the project and its impact. Methods: Adopting a quasi-experimental before-after design, four RNTCP units from two major urban-industrial areas of Odisha were selected for intervention, which spanned five quarters and covered 151,400 people, of which 30% were slum-dwelling migrants. Two similar units comprised the control population. The hypothesis was, reaching the under reached in the intervention area through NFHPs would increase TB notification from these traditionally under-notifying units. RNTCP notification data during intervention was compared with pre-intervention era, adjusted for contemporaneous changes in control population Results: The project detected 488 Xpert+ TB cases, of whom 466 were administered RNTCP treatment. This translated into notification of additional 198 new bacteriologically positive cases to RNTCP, a 30% notification surge, after adjustment for 2% decline in control. This meant an average quarterly increase in notification of 41.20(20.08, 62.31; p<0.001) cases. The increase was immediate, evident from the rise in level in the time series analysis by 50.42(10.28, 90.55; p = 0.02) cases. Conclusion: Engagement with NFHPs contributed to an increase in TB notification to RNTCP from key under reached, slum-dwelling migrant populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is one of the first evaluations of independent (i.e., self-guided) practice in math in a developing country. We randomly assigned 4,461 students in grades 4–7 in "unaided" private schools across seven Indian cities who were using a computer-assisted learning software to: (a) a control group, in which they moved from one unit to the next upon completion; or (b) a treatment group, in which they had to complete practice exercises before progressing to the next topic. After six months, the additional practice had a precisely estimated null effect on the math achievement of the average student. However, treatment students with low initial performance outperformed their control counterparts by 0.14 standard deviations (SDs). Our results suggest that independent practice may help private-school students from relatively well-off families in need of catching up with their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a unique hierarchical structure on various occupational health hazards including physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic and psychosocial hazards, and associated adverse consequences in relation to an underground coal mine. The study proposes a systematic health hazard risk assessment methodology for estimating extent of hazard risk using three important measuring parameters: consequence of exposure, period of exposure and probability of exposure. An improved decision making method using fuzzy set theory has been attempted herein for converting linguistic data into numeric risk ratings. The concept of ‘centre of area’ method for generalized triangular fuzzy numbers has been explored to quantify the ‘degree of hazard risk’ in terms of crisp ratings. Finally, a logical framework for categorizing health hazards into different risk levels has been constructed on the basis of distinguished ranges of evaluated risk ratings (crisp). Subsequently, an action requirement plan has been suggested, which could provide guideline to the managers for successfully managing health hazard risks in the context of underground coal mining exercise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of financial development on the rural-urban income inequality in India using annual data from 1965 to 2008. Design/methodology/approach – The Ng-Perron unit root test is utilised to check for the order of integration of the variables. The long run relation is examined by implementing the ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration. Findings – The results confirm a relation among the variables. Evidence suggest that financial development, economic growth and consumer prices aggravate rural-urban income inequality in the long run. Research limitations/implications – The present study offers fresh insights to policy makers on crafting appropriate policies that reduce rural-urban income inequality in India. Originality/value – The contribution of this paper is lies in extending the literature in the context of India towards an extensively researched area of rural-urban divide but in time series framework and utilization of a better approach of time series approach, i.e. ARDL. Specifically, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study to test poverty-finance nexus using the basic principles of the GJ hypothesis and provide evidence of short- and long-run dynamics on the postulated relation for India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender disparity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in higher education is a matter of concern across the world. Expansion of the higher education sector in the early twenty-first century in India has enabled to bring attitudinal changes in Indian families especially towards females' STEM higher education. The present study aims to understand the trend in gender parity in STEM disciplines at various levels of higher education in India through All India Survey on Higher Education, Government of India (2010-2011 to 2018-2019). The study uses the Gender Parity Index (GPI) method to calculate the status of female in STEM higher education. The results show that there is gender parity in overall disciplines at under-graduation, post-graduation, and M.Phil. levels. In STEM disciplines, enrolment of female is higher than male in biological sciences at all levels, but physical sciences show lower enrolment of female. Computer engineering, information technology, and electronics engineering have shown improvement in enrolment of female within the engineering and technology category. Gender parity is poor in mechanical engineering, civil engineering, and electrical engineering at all levels of higher education. The complex and multi-layered gender relations in wider society impact females' access to STEM higher education and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article offers information on the life and works of mathematician Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan in India. Mathematician V. Ramaswamy Aiyer, founder of the Indian Mathematical Society, not just acknowledged the creative spirits that produced the content of Ramanujan's notebook, but contact other mathematician to take the mathematics of Ramanujan for support. The big mathematical community that has flourished on the discoveries of Ramanujan for almost a century owes a big debt to Ramaswamy.

Background: India is strongly committed to reducing the burden of child malnutrition, which has remained a persistent concern. Findings from recent surveys indicate co-existence of child undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency and overweight/obesity, i.e. the triple burden of malnutrition among children below 5 years. While considerable efforts are being made to address this challenge, and several composite indices are being explored to inform policy actions, the methodology used for creating such indices, i.e., linear averaging, has its limitations. Briefly put, it could mask the uneven improvement across different indicators by discounting the 'lagging' indicators, and hence not incentivising a balanced improvement. Signifying negative implications on policy discourse for improved nutrition. To address this gap, we attempt to develop a composite index for estimating the triple burden of malnutrition in India, using a more sensitive measure, MANUSH. Methodology: Data from publicly available nation-wide surveys - National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS), was used for this study. First, we addressed the robustness of MANUSH method of composite indexing over conventional aggregation methods. Second, using MANUSH scores, we assessed the triple burden of malnutrition at the subnational level over different periods NHFS- 3(2005–06), NFHS-4 (2015–16) and CNNS (2106–18). Using mapping and spatial analysis tools, we assessed neighbourhood dependency and formation of clusters, within and across states. Result: MANUSH method scores over other aggregation measures that use linear aggregation or geometric mean. It does so by fulfilling additional conditions of Shortfall and Hiatus Sensitivity, implicitly penalising cases where the improvement in worst-off dimension is lesser than the improvement in best-off dimension, or where, even with an overall improvement in the composite index, the gap between different dimensions does not reduce. MANUSH scores helped in revealing the gaps in the improvement of nutrition outcomes among different indicators and, the rising inequalities within and across states and districts in India. Significant clusters (p < 0.05) of high burden and low burden districts were found, revealing geographical heterogeneities and sharp regional disparities. A MANUSH based index is useful in context-specific planning and prioritising different interventions, an approach advocated by the newly launched National Nutrition Mission in India. Conclusion: MANUSH based index emphasises balanced development in nutritional outcomes and is hence relevant for diverse and unevenly developing economy like India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is a surge in epidemiological modeling research due to sudden onset of COVID-19 pandemic across the globe. In the absence of any pharmaceutical interventions to control the epidemic, nonpharmaceutical interventions like containment, mitigation and suppression are tried and tested partners in epidemiological theories. But policy and planning needs estimates of disease burden in various scenarios in absence of real data and epidemiological models helps to fill this gap. Aims and Objectives: To review the models of COVID-19 prediction in Indian scenario, critically evaluate the range, concepts, strength and limitations of these prediction models and its potential policy implications. Results: Though we conducted data search for last three months, it was found that the predictive models reporting from Indian context have started publishing very recently. Majority of the Indian models predicted COVID-19 spread, projected best-, worst case scenario and forecasted effect of various preventive measurements such as lockdown and social distancing. Though the models provided some of the critical information regarding spread of the disease and fatality rate associated with COVID-19, it should be used with caution due to severe data gaps, distinct socio-demographic profiling of the population and diverse statistics of co-morbid condition. Conclusion: Although the models were designed to predict COVID spread, and claimed to be accurate, significant data gaps and need for adjust confounding variables such as effect of lockdown, risk factors and adherence to social distancing should be considered before generalizing the findings. Results of epidemiological models should be considered as guiding beacon instead of final destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Indian Society for History of Mathematics' 2015 Conference on History and Development of Mathematics, organized by the Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit at Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India on November 14-16, 2015. The event featured aspects of history of astronomy and mathematics, its relevance in education, and astronomy from Vedic texts. The conference was dedicated to mathematics historian Radha Charan Gupta to mark his 80th birthday.

In this study, we measured students' perceptions of mathematics classroom learning environment and investigated their associations with students' achievement. The Mathematics-Related Constructivist-Oriented Classroom Learning Environment Survey (MCOLES) was developed with seven dimensions and 56 items, using theories surrounding classroom learning environment. For a sample of 423 grade 10 students from five schools in India, we validated the MCOLES by exploratory factor analysis and then by confirmatory factor analysis, which suggested the exclusion of 11 items and yielded an 11-factor solution. For achievement on a topic taught, mainly medium correlations emerged with the learning environment factors, suggesting practical implications for classroom teaching. This study is methodologically significant in proposing and validating the new MCOLES for measuring classroom learning environments in secondary-school mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have attempted to reproduce the results in Development and validation of a deep learning algorithm for detection of diabetic retinopathy in retinal fundus photographs, published in JAMA 2016; 316(22), using publicly available data sets. We re-implemented the main method in the original study since the source code is not available. The original study used non-public fundus images from EyePACS and three hospitals in India for training. We used a different EyePACS data set from Kaggle. The original study used the benchmark data set Messidor-2 to evaluate the algorithm's performance. We used another distribution of the Messidor-2 data set, since the original data set is no longer available. In the original study, ophthalmologists re-graded all images for diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, and image gradability. We have one diabetic retinopathy grade per image for our data sets, and we assessed image gradability ourselves. We were not able to reproduce the original study's results with publicly available data. Our algorithm's area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.951 (95% CI, 0.947-0.956) on the Kaggle EyePACS test set and 0.853 (95% CI, 0.835-0.871) on Messidor-2 did not come close to the reported AUC of 0.99 on both test sets in the original study. This may be caused by the use of a single grade per image, or different data. This study shows the challenges of reproducing deep learning method results, and the need for more replication and reproduction studies to validate deep learning methods, especially for medical image analysis. Our source code and instructions are available at: . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reference evapotranspiration (ET0) plays a fundamental role in irrigated agriculture. The objective of this study is to simulate monthly ET0 at a meteorological station in India using a new method, an improved support vector machine (SVM) based on the cuckoo algorithm (CA), which is known as SVM-CA. Maximum temperature, minimum temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and sunshine hours were selected as inputs for the models used in the simulation. The results of the simulation using SVM-CA were compared with those from experimental models, genetic programming (GP), model tree (M5T) and the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS). The achieved results demonstrate that the proposed SVM-CA model is able to simulate ET0 more accurately than the GP, M5T and ANFIS models. Two major indicators, namely, root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE), indicated that the SVM-CA outperformed the other methods with respective reductions of 5–15% and 5–17% compared with the GP model, 12–21% and 10–22% compared with the M5T model, and 7–15% and 5–18% compared with the ANFIS model, respectively. Therefore, the proposed SVM-CA model has high potential for accurate simulation of monthly ET0 values compared with the other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial surrogacy in emerging countries such as India is often associated with exploitation of vulnerable women, the assumption being that it is performed by poor and uneducated women for rich intended parents. However, the hypothesis that surrogates are poor women has rarely been confronted with field data. The objective was to compare the socioeconomic characteristics of Indian surrogates interviewed in social studies with those of Indian women in the general population in order to provide preliminary data on whether surrogates have a specific profile and are indeed disadvantaged compared with their counterparts. The study analyzes the data from four cross-sectional studies carried out in India among surrogates between 2006 and 2014. Surrogates were recruited through clinics, agencies and agents. Data were collected during face-to-face interviews. The resulting convenience sample included 96 Indian surrogates. Their sociodemographic characteristics were compared with those of the general population extracted from Indian national surveys. The surrogates interviewed had their first child at a younger age than women in the general population, but they tended to have a smaller family. Their social situation tended to be better than that of the general population in terms of education, employment and family income. These results provide first empirical evidence moderating the common assumption that Indian surrogates are the poorest and least educated women. This does not mean, however, that exploitation does not exist. More studies are needed to confirm these results and to explore the issue in new international destinations for surrogacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is in two parts. The first presents an analysis of the epistemology underlying the practice of classical Indian mathematical astronomy, as presented in three works of Nīlakaṇtṭha Somayāji (1444-1545 CE). It is argued that the underlying concepts put great value on careful observation and skill in development of algorithms and use of computation. This is reflected in the technical terminology used to describe scientific method. The keywords in this enterprise include parīksā, anumāna, gaṇita, yukti, nyāya, siddhānta, tarka and anveṣaṇa. The concepts that underlie these terms are analysed and compared with such ideas as theory, model, computation, positivism, empiricism etc. In a short second part, it is proposed that the primacy awarded to number and computation in classical Indian science led to an artificial language that did include equations but emphasized displays that facilitated calculation, as in the Bakshali manuscript (800 CE?). It is further argued that echoes of these concepts can be recognized in current science, where computation is once again playing a greater role triggered by spectacular developments in computer technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it necessary for a student of management to learn any mathematics? Is this knowledge likely to be of any use later in the professional career? This paper presents arguments on both sides of this contentious issue. It is found that while mathematics may not be as directly useful as specialists in quantitative areas would like, the habit of abstract reasoning that it helps to develop serves a manager well later in life when major decisions must be taken and general policies formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most of the epidemiological studies that have examined the detrimental effects of ambient hot and cold temperatures on human health have been conducted in high-income countries. In India, the limited evidence on temperature and health risks has focused mostly on the effects of heat waves and has mostly been from small scale studies. Here, we quantify heat and cold effects on mortality in India using a nationally representative study of the causes of death and daily temperature data for 2001-2013.Methods and Findings: We applied distributed-lag nonlinear models with case-crossover models to assess the effects of heat and cold on all medical causes of death for all ages from birth (n = 411,613) as well as on stroke (n = 19,753), ischaemic heart disease (IHD) (n = 40,003), and respiratory diseases (n = 23,595) among adults aged 30-69. We calculated the attributable risk fractions by mortality cause for extremely cold (0.4 to 13.8°C), moderately cold (13.8°C to cause-specific minimum mortality temperatures), moderately hot (cause-specific minimum mortality temperatures to 34.2°C), and extremely hot temperatures (34.2 to 39.7°C). We further calculated the temperature-attributable deaths using the United Nations' death estimates for India in 2015. Mortality from all medical causes, stroke, and respiratory diseases showed excess risks at moderately cold temperature and hot temperature. For all examined causes, moderately cold temperature was estimated to have higher attributable risks (6.3% [95% empirical confidence interval (eCI) 1.1 to 11.1] for all medical deaths, 27.2% [11.4 to 40.2] for stroke, 9.7% [3.7 to 15.3] for IHD, and 6.5% [3.5 to 9.2] for respiratory diseases) than extremely cold, moderately hot, and extremely hot temperatures. In 2015, 197,000 (121,000 to 259,000) deaths from stroke, IHD, and respiratory diseases at ages 30-69 years were attributable to moderately cold temperature, which was 12- and 42-fold higher than totals from extremely cold and extremely hot temperature, respectively. The main limitation of this study was the coarse spatial resolution of the temperature data, which may mask microclimate effects.Conclusions: Public health interventions to mitigate temperature effects need to focus not only on extremely hot temperatures but also moderately cold temperatures. Future absolute totals of temperature-related deaths are likely to depend on the large absolute numbers of people exposed to both extremely hot and moderately cold temperatures. Similar large-scale and nationally representative studies are required in other low- and middle-income countries to better understand the impact of future temperature changes on cause-specific mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The World Health Organization recommends participatory learning and action (PLA) in women's groups to improve maternal and newborn health, particularly in rural settings with low access to health services. There have been calls to understand the pathways through which this community intervention may affect neonatal mortality. We examined the effect of women's groups on key antenatal, delivery, and postnatal behaviours in order to understand pathways to mortality reduction.Methods and Findings: We conducted a meta-analysis using data from 7 cluster-randomised controlled trials that took place between 2001 and 2012 in rural India (2 trials), urban India (1 trial), rural Bangladesh (2 trials), rural Nepal (1 trial), and rural Malawi (1 trial), with the number of participants ranging between 6,125 and 29,901 live births. Behavioural outcomes included appropriate antenatal care, facility delivery, use of a safe delivery kit, hand washing by the birth attendant prior to delivery, use of a sterilised instrument to cut the umbilical cord, immediate wrapping of the newborn after delivery, delayed bathing of the newborn, early initiation of breastfeeding, and exclusive breastfeeding. We used 2-stage meta-analysis techniques to estimate the effect of the women's group intervention on behavioural outcomes. In the first stage, we used random effects models with individual patient data to assess the effect of groups on outcomes separately for the different trials. In the second stage of the meta-analysis, random effects models were applied using summary-level estimates calculated in the first stage of the analysis. To determine whether behaviour change was related to group attendance, we used random effects models to assess associations between outcomes and the following categories of group attendance and allocation: women attending a group and allocated to the intervention arm; women not attending a group but allocated to the intervention arm; and women allocated to the control arm. Overall, women's groups practising PLA improved behaviours during and after home deliveries, including the use of safe delivery kits (odds ratio [OR] 2.92, 95% CI 2.02-4.22; I2 = 63.7%, 95% CI 4.4%-86.2%), use of a sterile blade to cut the umbilical cord (1.88, 1.25-2.82; 67.6%, 16.1%-87.5%), birth attendant washing hands prior to delivery (1.87, 1.19-2.95; 79%, 53.8%-90.4%), delayed bathing of the newborn for at least 24 hours (1.47, 1.09-1.99; 68.0%, 29.2%-85.6%), and wrapping the newborn within 10 minutes of delivery (1.27, 1.02-1.60; 0.0%, 0%-79.2%). Effects were partly dependent on the proportion of pregnant women attending groups. We did not find evidence of effects on uptake of antenatal care (OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.77-1.38; I2 = 86.3%, 95% CI 73.8%-92.8%), facility delivery (1.02, 0.93-1.12; 21.4%, 0%-65.8%), initiating breastfeeding within 1 hour (1.08, 0.85-1.39; 76.6%, 50.9%-88.8%), or exclusive breastfeeding for 6 weeks after delivery (1.18, 0.93-1.48; 72.9%, 37.8%-88.2%). The main limitation of our analysis is the high degree of heterogeneity for effects on most behaviours, possibly due to the limited number of trials involving women's groups and context-specific effects.Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests that women's groups practising PLA improve key behaviours on the pathway to neonatal mortality, with the strongest evidence for home care behaviours and practices during home deliveries. A lack of consistency in improved behaviours across all trials may reflect differences in local priorities, capabilities, and the responsiveness of health services. Future research could address the mechanisms behind how PLA improves survival, in order to adapt this method to improve maternal and newborn health in different contexts, as well as improve other outcomes across the continuum of care for women, children, and adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single Display Groupware (SDG) allows multiple people in the same physical space to interact simultaneously over a single communal display through individual input devices that work on the same machine. The aim of this paper is to show how SDG can be used to improve the way resources are used in schools, allowing students to work simultaneously on individual problems at a shared display, and achieve personalized learning with individual feedback within different cultural contexts. We used computational fluency to apply our concept of 'One Mouse per Child'. It consists of a participatory approach that makes use of personal feedback on an interpersonal computer for the whole classroom. This allows for N simultaneous intelligent tutoring systems, where each child advances at his or her own pace, both within a lecture and throughout the curricular units. Each student must solve a series of mathematical exercises, generated according to his or her performance through a set of pedagogical rules incorporated into the system. In this process, the teacher has an active mediating role, intervening when students require attention. Two exploratory studies were performed. The first study was a multicultural experience between two such distanced socio-economic realities as Chile and India. It showed us that even in different environmental conditions, it is possible to implement this technology with minimal equipment (i.e. a computer, a projector, and one mouse per child). The second study was carried out in a third grade class in a low-income school in Santiago de Chile. The students were asked to solve mainly addition exercises. We established statistically relevant results and observed that the software proved most beneficial for the students with the lowest initial results. This happens because the system adapts to the students' needs, reinforcing the content they most need to work on, thus generating a personalized learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karl Mahlburg brilliantly showed the importance of crank functions in partition congruences that were originally guessed by Freeman Dyson. Ramanujan’s partition functions are the centre of these works. Not only for the theory on cranks, but for many other researchers in India Ramanujan’s work inspired their career in mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Covid-19 mortality in the state of Kerala and compares it with that of India. Topics discussed include source of data collected in Kerala and India, using Benford's law to examine the quality of COVID-19 reporting, and misreporting of COVID-19 data in various developing countries, including India.

Background and Objective: Understanding medical students’ motivation to select medical studies is particularly salient to inform practice and policymaking in countries—such as India—where shortage of medical personnel poses crucial and chronical challenges to healthcare systems. This study aims to develop and validate a questionnaire to assess the motivation of medical students to select medical studies. Methods: A Motivation for Selection of Medical Study (MSMS) questionnaire was developed using extensive literature review followed by Delphi technique. The scale consisted of 12 items, 5 measuring intrinsic dimensions of motivations and 7 measuring extrinsic dimensions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), validity, reliability and data quality checks were conducted on a sample of 636 medical students from six medical colleges of three North Indian states. Results: The MSMS questionnaire consisted of 3 factors (subscales) and 8 items. The three principal factors that emerged after EFA were the scientific factor (e.g. research opportunities and the ability to use new cutting edge technologies), the societal factor (e.g. job security) and the humanitarian factor (e.g. desire to help others). The CFA conducted showed goodness-of-fit indices supporting the 3-factor model. Conclusion: The three extracted factors cut across the traditional dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and uncover a novel three-faceted motivation construct based on scientific factors, societal expectations and humanitarian needs. This validated instrument can be used to evaluate the motivational factors of medical students to choose medical study in India and similar settings and constitutes a powerful tool for policymakers to design measures able to increase selection of medical curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate pollution has important consequences for human health, and is an issue of global concern. Outdoor air pollution has become a cause for alarm in India in particular because recent data suggest that ambient pollution levels in Indian cities are some of the highest in the world. We study the number of particles between 0.5μm and 2.5μm indoors while using affordable air purifiers in the highly polluted city of Delhi. Though substantial reductions in indoor number concentrations are observed during air purifier use, indoor air quality while using an air purifier is frequently worse than in cities with moderate pollution, and often worse than levels observed even in polluted cities. When outdoor pollution levels are higher, on average, indoor pollution levels while using an air purifier are also higher. Moreover, the ratio of indoor air quality during air purifier use to two comparison measures of air quality without an air purifier are also positively correlated with outdoor pollution levels, suggesting that as ambient air quality worsens there are diminishing returns to improvements in indoor air quality during air purifier use. The findings of this study indicate that although the most affordable air purifiers currently available are associated with significant improvements in the indoor environment, they are not a replacement for public action in regions like Delhi. Although private solutions may serve as a stopgap, reducing ambient air pollution must be a public health and policy priority in any region where air pollution is as high as Delhi’s during the winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the impact of religious identity and village-level religious fragmentation on behavior in Tullock contests. We report on a series of two-player Tullock contest experiments conducted on a sample of 516 Hindu and Muslim participants in rural West Bengal, India. Our treatments are the identity of the two players and the degree of religious fragmentation in the village where subjects reside. Our main finding is that the effect of social identity is small and inconsistent across the two religious groups in our study. While we find small but statistically significant results in line with our hypotheses in the Hindu sample, we find no statistically significant effects in the Muslim sample. This is in contrast to evidence from Chakravarty et al. (2016), who report significant differences in cooperation levels in prisoners’ dilemma and stag hunt games, both in terms of village composition and identity. We attribute this to the fact that social identity may have a more powerful effect on cooperation than on conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Spontaneous or voluntary reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is one of the vital roles of all health professionals. In India, under-reporting of ADRs by health professionals is recognized as one of the leading causes of poor ADR signal detection. Therefore, reviewing the literature can provide a better understanding of the status of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of Pharmacovigilance (PV) activities by health professionals. Methods: A systematic review was performed through Pubmed, Scopus, Embase and Google Scholar scientific databases. Studies pertaining to KAP of PV and ADR reporting by Indian health professionals between January 2011 and July 2015 were included in a meta-analysis. Results: A total of 28 studies were included in the systematic review and 18 of them were selected for meta-analysis. Overall, 55.6% (95% CI 44.4–66.9; p<0.001) of the population studied were not aware of the existence of the Pharmacovigilance Programme in India (PvPI), and 31.9% (95% CI 16.3–47.4; p<0.001) thought that "all drugs available in the market are safe". Furthermore, 28.7% (95% CI 16.4–40.9; p<0.001) of them were not interested in reporting ADRs and 74.5%, (95% CI 67.9–81.9; p<0.001) never reported any ADR to PV centers. Conclusion: There was an enormous gap of KAP towards PV and ADR reporting, particularly PV practice in India. There is therefore an urgent need for educational awareness, simplification of the ADR reporting process, and implementation of imperative measures to practice PV among healthcare professionals. In order to understand the PV status, PvPI should procedurally assess the KAP of health professionals PV activities in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the rhythmic alphabet of the Carnatic System along-with its analysis, concepts and its applications. A concept-based application has lesser chances of failures during a performance and offers immense scope for impromptu improvisations which form a major part of South Indian percussion artistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which designs and evaluates a unified open-source framework for visually impaired people in India who are deprived of using Braille and text to speech systems due to the difference in the technology required for Indian languages. It discusses the different components of the proposed framework such as an Indian language text to Braille forward and reverse transliteration system, tactile graphics converter, and Indian language file reader system.

Background Obesity has been regarded as a single best predictor and major controllable contributor to hypertension. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between body compositional and nutritional parameters with blood pressure in rural Bengalee adults. Methods Anthropometric measures, blood pressure and nutritional parameters were measured in 522 rural Bengalee adults using standard protocols. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was carried out to identify cut-off values of body mass index ( BMI) and percentage of body fat ( BF%) as associated factors of hypertension and hypotension. Results Most of the subjects were normotensive. However, a notable percentage had hypertension (males: 21.86%; females: 15.27%), although the prevalence of hypotension was low (males: 10.53%; females: 8.73%). Obesity indicators were significantly higher in hypertensive individuals than hypotensive and normotensive individuals. All anthropometric parameters and obesity indicators were significantly correlated ( P < 0.001) with blood pressure. Blood pressure increased steadily from being underweight through to normal and then to overweight/obese individuals. There were significant differences in the percentage of hypertension and hypotension between nutritional categories. Blood pressure had significant positive correlation with energy, carbohydrate and fat intake, whereas protein and calcium were negatively associated with blood pressure. The suggested cut-off values of BMI and BF%, which were taken as associated factors of hypertension, were 21.86 kg m−2 and 20.31%, and those of hypotension were 18.18 kg m−2 and 13.3%, respectively. Conclusions In lean rural Bengalee populations, high BMI levels may be associated with an increased risk of hypertension. The cut-off values of BMI and BF% in the present study suggested associated factors for cardiovacular risk factors and these values may be of help with respect to reducing mean population blood pressure levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emergency referral services (ERS) are being strengthened in India to improve access for institutional delivery. We evaluated a publicly financed and privately delivered model of ERS in Punjab state, India, to assess its extent and pattern of utilization, impact on institutional delivery, quality and unit cost. Methods: Data for almost 0.4 million calls received from April 2012 to March 2013 was analysed to assess the extent and pattern of utilization. Segmented linear regression was used to analyse month-wise data on number of institutional deliveries in public sector health facilities from 2008 to 2013. We inspected ambulances in 2 districts against the Basic Life Support (BLS) standards. Timeliness of ERS was assessed for determining quality. Finally, we computed economic cost of implementing ERS from a health system perspective. Results: On an average, an ambulance transported 3–4 patients per day. Poor and those farther away from the health facility had a higher likelihood of using the ambulance. Although the ERS had an abrupt positive effect on increasing the institutional deliveries in the unadjusted model, there was no effect on institutional delivery after adjustment for autocorrelation. Cost of operating the ambulance service was INR 1361 (USD 22.7) per patient transported or INR 21 (USD 0.35) per km travelled. Conclusion: Emergency referral services in Punjab did not result in a significant change in public sector institutional deliveries. This could be due to high baseline coverage of institutional delivery and low barriers to physical access. Choice of interventions for reduction in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) should be context-specific to have high value for resources spent. The ERS in Punjab needs improvement in terms of quality and reduction of cost to health system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationships between academic motivation—intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation—and mathematics achievement among 363 Indian adolescents in India and 355 Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation were not statistically significantly related to mathematics achievement among Indian adolescents in India. In contrast, both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation were statistically significantly related to mathematics achievement among Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada. While intrinsic motivation was a statistically significant positive predictor of mathematics achievement among Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada, extrinsic motivation was a statistically significant negative predictor of mathematics achievement among Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada. Amotivation was not statistically significantly related to mathematics achievement among Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada. Implications of the findings for pedagogy and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elimination of infectious diseases requires reducing transmission below a certain threshold. The Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) Elimination Initiative in Southeast Asia aims to reduce the annual VL incidence rate below 1 case per 10,000 inhabitants in endemic areas by 2015 via a combination of case management and vector control. Using a previously developed VL transmission model, we investigated transmission thresholds dependent on measures reducing the sand fly density either by killing sand flies (e.g., indoor residual spraying and long-lasting insecticidal nets) or by destroying breeding sites (e.g., environmental management). Model simulations suggest that elimination of VL is possible if the sand fly density can be reduced by 67% through killing sand flies, or if the number of breeding sites can be reduced by more than 79% through measures of environmental management. These results were compared to data from two recent cluster randomised controlled trials conducted in India, Nepal and Bangladesh showing a 72% reduction in sand fly density after indoor residual spraying, a 44% and 25% reduction through the use of long-lasting insecticidal nets and a 42% reduction after environmental management. Based on model predictions, we identified the parameters within the transmission cycle of VL that predominantly determine the prospects of intervention success. We suggest further research to refine model-based predictions into the elimination of VL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we shall briefly describe the main functions of the National Statistical Commission, the apex statistical body of the country, which was established in 2006 following the recommendations of the Rangarajan Commission. We shall then discuss the important role of the Commission in the Official Statistical System of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]