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Decline in the use of public transit by commuters have increased the use of private vehicles, causing higher levels of traffic congestion, accidents, etc. The present study aims to identify major latent attributes influencing the behaviour of government employees working in the study area by using an integrated mode choice model. The unobservable attributes that influence mode selection decisions were analysed using the semantic differential technique and a five-point bipolar adjective scale. Conventional mode choice models and latent variable integrated mode choice models were developed for four different modes. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the impact of significant variables which has revealed that 15% decrease in travel time on public transport could lead to a 17% increase in ridership. This study also identified significant variables that influence mode selection decisions and formulated policies to increase the use of public transport in medium-sized cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public transport ridership has fallen drastically over the past few years, resulting in an increased number of private vehicles on the road, negatively impacting the road infrastructure with escalated levels of traffic congestion, pollution, road accidents, etc. Policy interventions provide a viable solution to the problem of ridership as they influence the decision-making of the public. In this article, an attempt was made to model the choice behaviour of employees working in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, India based on soft computing techniques. The choice data were collected through a revealed preference survey and mode choice models were developed using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Neuro-Fuzzy, and Fuzzy logic taking socio-economic characteristics, trip characteristics, and the identified latent factors as inputs. The results from the developed models are encouraging and they show good statistical validity. To formulate passenger attraction policies, the major latent factors that affect public bus ridership rates were examined. Consequently, suitable transport improvement policies are recommended based on the most influencing latent factors. Finally, based on the results of the sensitivity analysis, several policy interventions to enhance public transport ridership are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an overview of a major application of modern geospatial tools such as remote sensing, GIS and GPS, i.e., 3S technology in estimating travel demand along Indian roads by considering the study area, Tiruchirappalli urban city in Tamil Nadu. In the study, an attempt was made to estimate travel demand based on the current land-use classification as the pattern of travel depends on the type of land use activity in a zone. IRS high resolution image Cartosat-1 of year 2009 was used to extract the land-use information required. The travel demand model developed was validated with the field obtained OD-matrix to understand the accuracy of the method considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichomoniasis is a common sexually transmitted infection among both men and women, worldwide. The prevalence of trichomoniasis among married women in the remote Indian population is more important, yet they rarely sought treatment. This was the first-ever study conducted on the prevalence of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. A cross-sectional study was undertaken among married women in the Andaman Islands, India from August 2020 to July 2022. Samples were collected from the suspected women attending community health centres after obtaining informed consent. PCR assay for TV was performed using specific primers and conditions. Further, sequencing was carried out and pair-wise genetic analysis was done using MEGA version 11 to find the TV strain. Overall, 0.9% (nine out of 1000) TV cases were reported. The majority of infected population was below high school degrees (5/9) and was unemployed (7/9). Infected individuals never had a history of a sexually transmitted illness. Two of the ladies reported dyspareunia, and one of them had persistent pelvic pain. Of these, most of them had pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and abnormal vaginal discharge. The pair-wise genetic distance analysis found the strain found on this island was TV G3. From our knowledge, this surveillance study was conducted first time in the Andaman and Nicobar Island. The detection of the TV G3 strain may be essential for understanding the prevalence of TV infection and their associated risk factors. More research is needed to understand the TV-associated risk factors among suspected patients in hospital settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall-runoff modeling plays a crucial role in determining the regular water balance. Modifications in land use and land cover (LULC) significantly impact on the hydrological response of watersheds. The study aims to analyze the effect of land use change on river runoff with the use of hydrological modeling in the Wadi Ouahrane watershed in northwestern Algeria. The study was conducted for the period from 1987 to 2017. According to the LULC change study, cultivated land and built-up areas have increased, whereas forest and grassland areas have decreased. Sensitivity evaluation has shown that the CN (curve number) is the most important factor affecting the watershed hydrology. The Nash–Sutcliffe (NSE) and efficiency values for the Wadi Ouahrane watershed were 0.76–0.82 and 0.86–0.91 for the calibration period and 0.72–0.74 and 0.81–0.83 for the validation one, respectively. The assessment of the HEC-HMS response to the LULC change showed that the peak discharge for 2017 increased by 68% relative to the 1987 peak discharge. This research has improved the knowledge of the relationship between land use change and hydrological regimes in the Wadi Ouahrane watershed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]