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Community engagement in relation to HIV/AIDS has so often been a topic of discussion in India, substantial involvement of the community has rarely been a mainstream practice The general concept of community engagement is letting research projects achieve success by involving the participants directly into the research work, and implementing the results and the inferences obtained from those projects for the betterment of participants. We tried our level best to put this theory in practice at Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, India during year 2015-2016. Apart from some teething problems that cropped up at the initial stage of the study, which was difficult and time taking to solve. The advantages of community involvement, as the experience showed, outweighed such minor difficulties. The final developed model for community engagement among marginalized population was successful and we can recommend this model for robust data collection and interpretation expecting a fruitful end result. Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Community engagement, Community involvement.

This case focuses on initiatives taken by the Indian travel tech company MiStay during the COVID-19 pandemic and describes the unique strategies that forced its presence into the accommodation industry of India. The travel tech company acts as a liaison between hotels and travellers. With its online booking system, travellers can book rooms on an hourly basis. This discussion is based on the various hiccups the company has faced along with how the new idea of flexible room booking systems benefit all relevant parties. Here, the focus is on the change of the century-old hotel booking system, resulting in the creation of a new era for accommodation businesses. The changing perception caused by this paradigm shift in hotel booking systems is going to impact the hospitality industry as MiStay may face many potential competitors in the future.

Development of women entrepreneurship in the SME sector has a crucial importance in a developing country like Bangladesh where women constitute half of the total population. The majority of them are underprivileged, under nourished, illiterate and poor. Hence, the development of women entrepreneurship has tremendous potentials for transforming the society through socioeconomic empowerment of the women. This potential is remained untapped in Bangladesh because of lower number of women entrepreneurs in business and economic activities. According to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2009, around six percent of the country’s $90 billion economy comes from SMEs, which is also the largest sector in terms of employment generation. But the women entrepreneurs are less than ten percent of the total entrepreneurs of the country. However, in the recent years, women entrepreneurship in small retail businesses of the country has been increasing which is a good sign for the positive growth of the economy.

The two prime dynamics that are steering the future wireless communications are energy efficiency and efficient spectral usage. Energy harvesting (EH) when integrated with cognitive radio (CR) technology guarantees to address the challenges of limited availability of energy and spectrum. In this paper, we propose an estimation based cyclostationary spectrum sensing technique in an energy harvesting cooperative cognitive radio network (EH-CRN). The analytical model for the assessment of the performance is established under various fusion rules with varying numbers of nodes in a centralized cooperative CRN. The performance is investigated with respect to the harvested energy and overall throughput of the network. We model the analytical framework for the detection performance, energy harvesting, and throughput in an EH-CRN scenario. The implication of the various network parameters viz., detection frames, number of CR users operating in cooperation, collision probability, prediction error upon the throughput of the network is studied. A comprehensive comparative analysis is made between the performance of an estimation based cyclostationary detection (ECSD) and estimated noise power based energy detection strategy (ENP ED). The results indicate that the proposed estimation based cyclostationary approach provides a better performance regardless of the low SNR and is immune to noise uncertainty as compared to other techniques.

Background: Otosclerosis is one of the commonest diseases of the ear mostly involves the otic capsule. Most often otosclerotic foci appear in stapes region leading to stapes fixation, predominantly affect the adolescence female. The most common presenting symptom of clinical otosclerosis is conductive deafness. The mainstay of treatment for otosclerosis is surgery. Surgical options include stapedectomy, stapedotomy with or without stapedial tendon preservation. The latter being is the procedure of choice. Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the outcome of uncomfortable loudness level in stapedotomy with or without stapedial tendon preservation. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka for 18 months in patients with otosclerosis. Total 30 subjects were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All patients were assessed pre-operatively by clinical examination, otoscopy and microscopic examination. Hearing was assessed by pure tone audiometry. Uncomfortable level and stapedial reflex threshold were tested in all cases. The selected cases were placed into two groups. Stapedial tendon resection in Group-I and stapedial tendon preservation in Group-II. Post-operative follow up was done at 3 months and 6 months. Hearing and uncomfortable loudness level were evaluated with PTA during follow up by calculating the average of 500Hz, 1000Hz, 2000Hz and 4000HZ. The data were calculated manually. The statistical significance was set to P< 0.05. Results of the study were expressed as mean, standard deviation (± SD), frequency and percentages. Means and standard deviations were reported for continuous variables. Frequencies and percentages were reported for categorical variables. Unpaired Student’s t test was done to compare the continuous variables and Chi Square test was done to compare the categorical variables. Results: In this study preoperative average ABG for group I and group II were 35 ± 4.57 dB and 34 ± 4.17 dB respectively. In group I, post operative average ABG after 3 months and 6 months were 14 ± 3.7 dB and 13±3.3 dB respectively. Post operative average ABG after 3 months was 13 ± 5.7 dB and was 12 ± 4.4 dB for group II. But the hearing improvement between two groups was not statistically significant. In case of preoperative mean UCL was 95 ± 1.8 dB and 96 ± 2.5 dB for group I and group II respectively. Postoperative mean UCL after 3 months was 96 ± 3.57 dB and after 6 months was 99 ± 6.28 dB in group I. For group II, postoperative mean UCL after 3 months and 6 months was 107±4.2 dB and 113 ± 3.2 dB respectively. Here mean UCL was on average 11 dB higher for group II in 3 months and additional 6 dB improvement noted after 6 months, but show minimal change in group I. This finding was statistically significant. Conclusion: Preservation of the stapedial tendon is the choice in the surgical treatment of otosclerosis which helps to improve functional outcomes as well as to provide the more physiologic protection of middle ear. Postoperative discomfort threshold levels were increased in patients who had their stapedial tendon restored. Bangladesh J Otorhinolaryngol 2021; 27(2): 117-123

The embedding systems play an inevitable role in healthcare informatics and medical diagnosis. This article presents the design of a microcontroller ( $\mu C$ )-based online parameter detection and diagnosis system using real-time nerve signals. In developing the system, a low cost and low power battery-based voltage controlled neurostimulator is designed to stimulate the targeted sites of underlying nerve. In the second phase, a signal conditioning circuit is designed to accurately process and obtain the recorded signals for parameter extraction. In offline mode, an optimum neural network structure is determined from MATLAB simulation using prediagnosed nerve signal dataset through cross-validation technique which is then implemented in programmable interface controller (PIC) $\mu C$ (PIC18F45K22) for online estimation of parameter and diagnosis. Afterwards, nerve signals are collected from various subjects in laboratory following the guidelines of standard nerve conduction study (NCS) which are processed through embedded programmed $\mu C$ . Experimental results and subsequent comparison with the state-of-the-art designs indicate that the proposed system is promising and reliable for online detection of the NCS parameters and subsequent diagnosis.

PurposeThe primary aim of this paper is to study a dark side of e-HRM concerning its parallel effect on human resource (HR) socialization and HR service delivery and the consequent impact of perceived HR effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachThe current study started with an in-depth review of the extant literature in the field of e-HRM to derive a set of constructs. Based on the theoretical foundation of the identified constructs, the current study went on to derive a set of hypotheses, which was subsequently validated using the uses the quantitative technique of PLS-SEM. A primary survey, in the form of a structured questionnaire, was used as the source for data collection on a sample size of 276 from the Indian industrial domain. Careful attention was paid to eliminate the common method bias in the study.FindingsThe findings of this study show a simultaneous significant full mediation effect of both HR service delivery and HR socialization is the relationship between e-HRM and HR effectiveness. However, e-HRM has a strong and significant negative effect on HR socialization. Though HR socialization is positively related to HR effectiveness, the significantly reduced level of HR socialization as a consequence of adaption of e-HRM had negatively affected the perceived HR effectiveness.Originality/valueAlthough the dark side of e-HRM has been recognized by academicians and practitioners alike, its implications have seldom been studied in the academic literature. The current study intends to shed some light on this important, but sparsely discussed topic. Further, this study makes significant and meaningful contributions in the literature of e-HRM by empirically studying together the positive and negative consequences of e-HRM and its effects on HR effectiveness. Several e-HRM scholars have discussed the implications of e-HRM adoption and highlighted the negative impacts of e-HRM, and traversing the same path, the current study advances the literature by empirically investigating the effect of e-HRM on the dehumanization of HR processes and practices.

BACKGROUND COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) was declared a pandemic by WHO in early 2020. In India during the month of March, a lockdown was announced. All dental institutions and clinics were closed by looking at the emergency situation all around the world. The study was intended to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of parents in relation to the oral health of their children during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS A self-designed, structured, online questionnaire of 26 close-ended questions was distributed to 500 mothers of children aged 1 to 10 years of age through messages, WhatsApp, and emails. Participants were given a consent form to be filled online and it was a prerequisite to attend all the questions. Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using the chi-square goodness of fit test. The P-value where P ≤ 5 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS A standardized self-designed online questionnaire was used to perform this crosssectional survey. Before commencing with the study, the institutional review board reviewed and approved it. A panel of specialists created the questionnaire and consent form, which were then evaluated by parents to determine its face validity. A parent or caretaker then completed the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS Parents’ knowledge, attitude, and perspective towards the oral hygiene of their children during the pandemic were very good and parents took proper home measures to tackle their oral health problems. KEY WORDS COVID-19, Oral Health, Child, Parents, Oral Hygiene

Detection as well as classification of different object for machine vision application is a challenging task. Similar to the other object detection and classification task, human detection concept provides a major role for the ad- vancement in the design of an automatic visual surveillance system (AVSS). For the future automation system if it is possible to include human detection and tracking, human action recognition, usual as well as unusual event recognition etc. concept for future AVSS, it will be a greater success in the transformable world. In this paper we have proposed a proper human detection and tracking technique for human action recognition toward the design of AVSS. Here we use median filter for noise removal, graph cut for segment the human images, mathematical morphology to refine the segmentation mask, extract selective feature points by sing HOG, classify human objects by using SVM with polynomial ker- nel and finally particle filter for tracking those of detected human. Due to the above mentioned combinations our system can independent to the variations of lightening conditions, color, shape, size, clothing etc. and can handle the occlusion. Our system can easily detect and track human in different indoor as well as outdoor environ- ment with a automatic multiple human detection rate of 97:61% and total multiple human detection and tracking accuracy is about 92% for AVSS. Due to the use of HOG to extract features af- ter graph cut segmentation operation, our system requires less memory for store the trained data therefore processing speed as well as accuracy of detection and tracking will be better than other techniques which can be suitable for action classification task.

Gastrostomy tube (GT) dislodgement is a common reason for emergency department (ED) visits. We aim to assess the efficacy of our institution's algorithm in reducing surgical consultation and GT contrast studies for replacement of dislodged GT and to examine the need for operation before and after algorithm implementation.A retrospective review was performed between March 2017-February 2018 (prealgorithm) and March 2018-December 2018 (postalgorithm) for patients18 years presenting to the ED with GT dislodgement. Demographics and outcomes were analyzed.A total of 433 visits among 279 patients were included, 200 (46.2%) pre and 233 (53.8%) postalgorithm implementation. Median ED LOS was 2.1 h (IQR 1.4, 3.0). Surgery was consulted in 92 visits (21.3%) and a contrast study obtained in 287 (66.3%). The GT was replaced by ED providers in 363 visits (83.8%) and by surgery in 70 (16.2%). Surgical consultation increased postalgorithm (16.5% vs. 25.3%; p = 0.03). Six (1.4%) patients required reoperation, with 5 occurring postalgorithm, p = 0.22. For GTs placed8 weeks prior to the dislodgment, there were no differences in surgical consultations, contrast studies performed, or need for reoperation pre and postalgorithm.An algorithm for replacement of dislodged GT is usable, effective, and increased surgical team involvement without significant changes in patient outcomes. TYPE OF STUDY: Treatment Study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.

Introduction: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is characterized by a spectrum of symptoms, ranging from a local inammatory process to the more severe form (acute necrotizing pancreatitis) which is associated with a systemic inammatory response. The overall mortality rate of AP is between 5% and 15%, reaching 30 % in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Early optimized care may improve prognosis in patients with severe forms but it remains a challenge to identify these poor prognosis cases especially in the rst 48 hours. This study will evaluate the efcacy of serum D-Dimer in prediction of severity and outcome of acute pancreatitis. A prospective observati Methods: onal study of 60 patients presenting with AP was done at st st Silchar Medical College from 1 June 2017 to 31 May 2018. APACHE-II, Ranson criteria, and CT severity index (CTSI) of all patients were calculated,. D-Dimer was done for all patients. The patients were stratied into categories of severe pancreatitis, organ failure and pancreatic necrosis, as well as the number of deaths. The comparison of D-Dimer with other scoring systems was done by area under the receiver-operating curve (AUC) to predict severity, organ failure, necrosis, and death. Of the 60 patie Result: nts, 15 (25%) developed SAP, 12 (20%) Organ failure (OF), 22 (36.7%) pancreatic necrosis and 3 (5%) died. ROC curves were generated and following cut-off were selected for comparison of severity, organ failure, necrosis and death; Ranson ≥ 3, APACHE II ≥ 8, CTSI ≥ 4. Cut-off of D-Dimer value for severity, organ failure, necrosis and death are ≥1397µg/L, ≥1886µg/L, ≥1890µg/L and ≥5769µg/L respectively. The AUC of D-Dimer (0.914) in predicting severity of disease is similar to that of Apache 2 (0.958) and Ranson (0.899). CTSI (0.715) had lowest AUC among them. The AUC of D-Dimer (0.833) in predicting of organ failure of disease is similar to that of Ranson (0.908) and lower than Apache 2 (0.980). CTSI (0.715) had lowest AUC among them. The AUC of CTSI (0.892) in predicting the necrosis was higher than Apache 2 (0.590), Ranson score (0.578) system and D-Dimer. The AUC of D-Dimer (0.953) in predicting of mortality of disease is similar to that of Apache 2 (0.933), CTSI (0.953) and lower than Ranson score (0.816). Conclusion: D-Dimer is an easy tool for assessment of severity and prognosis of acute pancreatitis. CTSI is best for predicting pancreatic necrosis.

Introduction Earlier national surveys on the management of acute pancreatitis (AP) had reported non-compliance to practice guidelines. In the past decade, several guidelines were revised based on new evidence. In this multicenter international survey, we aimed to evaluate the practice patterns of early management of AP and compliance to the revised treatment guidelines across different disciplines and practice environments. Methods A structured questionnaire was sent via email to a target population of 654 that constituted of medical and surgical gastroenterologists, physicians and general surgeons, paediatricians from academic and non-academic centres across 30 countries. Other than demographic variables, the questionnaire contained items pertaining to early management of AP, such as, assessment at admissions and within first 72 h s, details regarding analgesics, IV hydration, oral/enteral feeding and antibiotic use. Results The response rate was 46.2% and after exclusions, a total of 297 participant's responses were analysed. Majority of the participants were from Asia, followed by Europe and the Americas. 181 (60.9%) claimed to follow practice guidelines, out of which 59 (32.6%) followed more than one. On further probing, only 41.9% were actually compliant to feeding and 59.7% to antibiotic guidelines. Even though participants opted for aggressive hydration, early feeding and avoidance of prophylactic antibiotics, there were non-compliance and discrepancies in titration of fluid therapy, indications of feeding and antibiotic use. Discussion Discrepancies and non-compliance still appear to exist in the early management of AP due to lack of strong evidence. We discuss ways that could improve compliance to the existing guidelines until stronger evidence comes to the fore.

This article proposes a single band circularly polarized (CP) rectenna operate at a 2.45 GHz Wi-Fi band, using a hexagonal shape of a microstrip radiator and a voltage doubler rectifier for smart c...

Endolymphatic sac tumour (ELST) is a rare low-grade locally aggressive neoplasm arising from the endolymphatic duct or sac. It presents mostly with vestibulo-cochlear symptoms either sporadically or as part of von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) syndrome. Micro-neurosurgical excision remains the cornerstone of therapy with the role of radiotherapy (RT) being controversial. This is a clinico-pathological analysis of consecutive ELST patients presenting to a single-institution in India. Neuropathology database of a tertiary-care comprehensive cancer centre was searched electronically to identify consecutive patients with histopathological diagnosis of ELST registered at the institute over last one decade. Data regarding demographic profile, clinical presentation, histopathological features, treatment details and outcomes were retrieved from electronic medical records for this retrospective analysis. Electronic search identified seven unique patients with biopsy-proven ELST registered at the institute between 2009 and 2020. Median age of the study cohort was 39 years (range 24–65 years) with strong male predilection (5:2 ratio) and left-sided preponderance (71%). Most common presenting symptoms were hearing loss (86%) and earache (71%) on affected side followed by headache (43%). All patients underwent maximal safe resection at initial diagnosis and were followed-up closely with periodic surveillance imaging. Two patients underwent salvage RT using high-precision conformal techniques at recurrence/progression. ELST is a rare low-grade locally aggressive neoplasm that arises generally as part of VHL syndrome or sometimes sporadically. Gross total resection provides the best chance of cure with RT being reserved for unresectable disease, large residue, medical inoperability, or as salvage therapy for recurrent/progressive tumor.

In this study, we aimed to compare the surgical volume and outcomes between this COVID-19 period and data from non-COVID-19 period of last year. A retrospective observational study was done in one single surgical unit of a dedicated oncology center in a peripheral location in India. The comparison was done between patients undergoing major cancer surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic period of 1st April to 30th June 2020, when a nation-wide lockdown was in force, to a comparable period of last year. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software 20.0. A total of 72 patients underwent major cancer surgery during this period, with surgery for breast cancer (n = 26) being the major sub-site operated. This was a significant decrease from the total 209 major cancer surgeries performed during a similar period of last year (2019) (p

Detection of human for visual surveillance system provides most important rule for advancement in the design of future automation systems. Human detection and tracking are important for future automatic visual surveillance system (AVSS). In this paper we have proposed a flexible technique for proper human detection and tracking for the design of AVSS. We used graph cut for segment human as a foreground image by eliminating background, extract some feature points by using HOG, SVM classifier for proper classification and finally we used particle filter for tracking those of detected human. Our system can easily detect and track humans in poor lightening conditions, color, size, shape, and clothing due to the use of HOG feature descriptor and particle filter. We use graph cut based segmentation technique, therefore our system can handle occlusion at about 88%. Due to the use of HOG to extract features our system can properly work in indoor as well as outdoor environments with 97.61% automatic human detection and 92% automatic human detection and tracking accuracy of multiple human

Background and Aim Postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) is an important cause of major morbidity and mortality after pancreaticoduodenectomy. We intend to estimate the incidence and study the risk factors and outcomes of patients who developed this dreaded complication. Methods This is a retrospective observational study. We included all patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy at a specialized surgical unit of a single tertiary care cancer center in Northeast India. The period of study was from 23 April 2012 to 27 December 2019. The 2016 update on the definition of POPF by the International Study Group for Pancreatic Fistula was used to define the complication. Chi‐square test and Fischer's exact test were applied to categorical variables. t‐test was used to quantify mean difference among continuous variables. P value, Postoperative pancreatic fistula remains a potentially life‐threatening complication of pancreaticoduodenectomies. Preoperative hyperbilirubinemia, pancreatic duct size less than or equal to 3 mm, hypoalbuminemia, preoperative biliary decompression, and prolonged duration of surgery were identified as risk factors for POPF. POPF also resulted in increased 90‐day mortality (20%).The knowledge and management of modifiable risk factors for this condition may help in mitigating this problem.

In smartphone-based crowd/participatory sensing systems, it is necessary to identify the actual sensor data provider. In this context, this paper attempts to recognize the users’ identity based on their gait patterns (i.e. unique walking patterns). More specifically, a deep convolution neural network (CNN) model is proposed for the user identification with accelerometer data generated from users smartphone sensors. The proposed model is evaluated based on the real-world benchmark dataset (accelerometer biometric competition data) having a total of 387 users accelerometer sensor readings (60 million data samples). The performance of the proposed CNN-based approach is also compared with five baseline methods namely Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Logistic Regression (LR), and K-Nearest Neighbours (KNN). It is observed that the proposed model achieves better results (accuracy = 98.8%, precision = 0.94, recall = 0.97, and F1-score = 0.95) as compared to the baseline methods.

BackgroundThe most common cancer diagnosed in germline TP53 pathogenic variant (PV) carriers is premenopausal breast cancer. An increased rate of breast tumour HER2 positivity has been reported in this group. Screening for breast/other cancers is recommended in PV carriers.Objectives1. To assess the frequency of germline TP53 PVs reported diagnostically in women with breast cancer at 2. To evaluate the impact of personal/family history and HER2 status on the likelihood of germline TP53 pathogenic/likely pathogenic variant (PV/LPV) identification.MethodsGenetic test results from patients undergoing diagnostic germline TP53 tests between 2012 and 2017 in the four London Regional Clinical Genetics Services were reviewed. Clinical/pathology data and family history were extracted from genetics files for women diagnosed with breast cancer at ResultsThe overall germline TP53 PV/LPV variant detection rate was 9/270=3.3% in all women diagnosed with breast cancer at TP53-spectrum cancers. Breast cancers were significantly more likely to be HER2-positive in TP53 PV/LPV carriers than in non-carriers (p=0.00006).ConclusionsGermline TP53 PVs/LPVs are uncommon among women diagnosed with breast cancer aged

An elevated level of anthropogenic CO2 has been the major cause of global warming, and significant efforts are being made around the world towards the development of CO2 capture, storage and reuse technologies. Among various CO2 conversion technologies, electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2 RR) by nanocrystals is one of the most promising strategies as it is facile, quick, and can be integrated with other renewable energy techniques. Judiciously designed catalytic nanomaterials promise to be the next generation of electrochemical electrodes that offer cutting-edge performance, low energy consumption and aid in reducing overall carbon footprint. In this minireview, we highlight the recent developments related to the bimetallic Cu-based nanocatalysts and discuss their structure-property relationships. We focus on the design principles and parameters required for the enhancement of CO2 conversion efficiency, selectivity, and stability.

Background: During pregnancy, newborn development is directly affected by mother's well being. In India pregnancy induced hypertension incidence corresponds to be around 15%. The babies born to hypertensive mother have higher incidence of haematological changes. Due to uteroplacental vascular insufficiency or due to chronic foetal hypoxia there is increased iron utilization during enhanced erythropoiesis. Objectives: The aim is to compare the cord blood haemoglobin and ferritin level in newborns of normotensive versus preeclamptic patients. Materials and methods: It is a hospital based prospective case control study conducted from June 1st 2019 to 31st May 2020 for a period of one year. Over the study period, total 200 patients are included in the study and analysis of cord blood haemoglobin and ferritin level of 100 preeclamptic (case) and 100 normotensive (control) mothers were done. All data were analysed using SPSS version 21. A p - value

Background The assessment of patients’ decision-making capacity is ubiquitous in contemporary healthcare. This paper examines the ethics of undisclosed probing of capacity by psychiatrists. The discussion will refer to the law in England and Wales, though the highlighted issues are likely to be relevant in similar jurisdictions. Main text Decision-making capacity is a private attribute, and patients may not necessarily be aware that one of their personal abilities is being explored. Routine exploration of capacity has not historically been a part of psychiatric examination, but it is now difficult to avoid during psychiatric interview.Ethical practice and shared decision-making require patients to be aware that their decision-making may be evaluated by the doctor at some point, and the potential implications of an objective professional conclusion of incapacity. Case law directs that patients should be informed about any assessment of their decision-making ability, though the extent to which this has translated into practice is unclear. However, explanation about the assessment may cause a patient to react negatively, which may impede therapeutic engagement and constitute an ethical dilemma. It is argued that in the absence of systemic measures, professionals should retain the discretion to decide whether a particular patient should be informed about the impending probe into their decision-making ability, or not. In the latter instance, concealment of information about the assessment or its purpose should be subject to the caveats and safeguards associated with any recourse to therapeutic exception. Conclusion The necessity to mandatorily inform patients about assessment of their capacity introduces a novel ethical dilemma for psychiatrists. The negotiation of this dilemma should not be the prerogative of the clinician, and requires systemic initiatives to ensure universal awareness of patients about the possibility of their capacity being assessed during their journeys through healthcare systems.

Objective: The aim of the study was to identify intracerebral lesion in computed tomography (CT) imaging of eclampsia and correlate them with clinical manifestations. Methodology: This prospective study was carried out in the high dependency unit (HDU) of department of obstetrics and gynaecology in a tertiary care hospital for a period of one year. Total 45 women were included and were divided into two groups: a) study group: abnormal CT findings, b) control group: normal CT findings. Comparison was done using chi-square test. Results: Out of 45 numbers of cases 33.33% (15 women) had changes in brain CT scan. We observed 10 cases of cerebral oedema, 3 cases of cerebral infarction, and 2 cases of cerebral hemorrhage. The blurring of vision, multiple numbers of seizures, altered sensorium and unconsciousness showed statistically significant difference between the study and control group. The most common lobe involvement was occipital lobe (14 cases). There were five numbers of maternal mortality among 45 cases. All the 2 cases who had intracerebral haemorrhage died. Conclusion: The dominant intracerebral finding of eclamptic patient was cerebral oedema. Blurring of vision, multiple number of seizures, altered sensorium and unconsciousness were warning clinical presentations for possible brain lesions in CT scan.

Background- With the high morbidity and mortality year 2020 will be remembered as Covid19 pandemic year. Occupational exposure to COVID 19 among health care workers poses a major risk to their lives. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) prophylaxis has been indicated for their use without much scientific evidence. Objective- to find if HCQ prophylaxis had association with Covid19 infection prevention among health care workers. Material &Method- A retrospective cohort study was conducted; through online by utilizing social media platform, among Health care workers of a tertiary care hospital from 1st June 2020 to 27 July 2020. Those HCWs who have taken HCQ (exposed) and who have not taken (nonexposed) and PCR tested Covid19 Positive were taken as diseased. Results Out of 527 who were analyzed, study subjects who took HCQ prophylaxis had 30% less chance of having Covid19 test positive, {RR- 0.709(0.383-1.296)} as compared those who didn’t took it, but the results were not significant. Conclusion- Hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis does not prevent Covid 19 infection and more evidence may be required for use of HCQ prophylaxis for Covid19 infection. Keywords- Hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis, Covid19 infection, Health care workers, Retrospective cohort study

The present study has proposed three novel hybrid models by integrating three traditional ensemble models, such as random forest, logitboost, and naive bayes, and six newly developed ensemble model...

There is a certain function of ion channels in cancer cell progression and proliferation. The mutation of ion channels is proved to have a clear influence on the same. The progress of nanomedicine research needs the proper concept of the exact role of ion channels in cancer and the cause of the disease. In this work, an ion channel protein residing in our stomach with PDB id 3ux4 is analyzed to get an idea about its structure-function relationship. The disordered region and mutation sensitivity of the channel causing cancer are analyzed in different ways. Eight disordered regions of the protein are found in the study. The pocket in the active site is found along with the position of the miss-sense mutation. The maximum mutation region is also found for a sample disordered region. The engineered ion channel is simulated in the environment of water and ions. The potential energy of the water-ion model of the protein calculated by molecular dynamics simulation is 20,412 kcal/mol after simulating the system for 1,00000 steps.

What role infectious agents play in the causation of psychotic disorders? To investigate this area, we have aimed to investigate the relationship between Toxoplasma gondii and psychotic disorders. A hospital-based cross-sectional study is designed. IgM and IgG antibodies to T. gondii in patients with psychotic disorders will be measured and presented in result. Seropositivity rates will be compared with first-degree relatives and healthy volunteers. Also, types of psychotic disorders and seropositivity rate will be compared. Here, we are presenting the study protocol with implications toward a brain-based diagnostic system and novel treatment approaches.

The continuous Sign Language recognition (SLR) system suffers from a problem called movement epenthesis (me) which involves certain intermediate connecting movement between two consecutive signs. In this paper, a novel framework for spotting of continuous fingerspelling sequence is proposed, which can directly extract motion information of signs from a compressed video. The framework is based on motion vectors extracted from H.264/AVC compressed videos. A Spatio-Temporal Markov Random Field (ST-MRF) based model is employed to model non-rigid motions of fingers as sign or me. The proposed framework is tested on a number of sign language videos encoded with an H.264/AVC JM encoder, and the accuracy of spotting was found to be around 75%.

COVID-19 pandemic caused due to SARS-CoV2 has disrupted the spectrum of health care. The wide arrays of supportive and palliative care needed for patients with ailments were grossly neglected, due to the diversion of resources and healthcare professionals in COVID management. This deficiency was further exaggerated by extended lockdown and closure of outdoor patient care services resulting in unprecedented crisis in disease management. Further, COVID-19 has been associated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality arising from associated risk factors in geriatric subjects and those with other high risk co-morbidities like hypertension, COPD, diabetes and cancer. North East Indian states and the adjoining regions seem to have suffered substantially during the COVID-19 crisis due to their preexisting vulnerabilities and under developed health care infrastructure and logistics. This deficiency, however, seems to have been fulfilled substantially by the participation of NGO (Non-Government Organizations) and other volunteer services who has actively participated to provide basic healthcare and other life support to cancer patients in this crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Asian Journal of Medical Sciences is the property of Manipal Colleges of Medical Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Thalassemias are the most common heritable blood disorders that represents a major public concern. Poor awareness and lack of knowledge lead to increase number of carrier that is a silent reservoir of the disease. To observe the knowledge and awareness level of parents of thalassemic children about the disease. Materials and methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the Thalassemia ward of Chattogram Maa Shishu-O-General Hospital, Chattogram from July 2013 to June, 2014. Parents of 70 thalassemia patients aged 2-18 years interviewed with a formulated questionnaire based on knowledge status and awareness level of parents towards thalassemia. Data were analyzed by both manually and by SPSS-18. Results: Majority of patients were from rural background (54.3%). Only 8.6% parents were consanguineous parents and majority of them completed only secondary education. 44.3% resolved it as inherited disorder. 52.9% resolved thalassemia cannot be cured. Only 24.3% regarded bone marrow transplantation as a measure of cure. More than half (55.7%) did not know how to prevent thalassemia. Only 37.1% knew about prenatal diagnosis. Carrier status of both father and mother were unknown in majority of patients (80%) and screening of sibs was not done at all in a significant number of patients (51.5%). Only 34.3% wanted to do prenatal diagnosis after conception and 65.7% parents were ready to accept therapeutic abortion if fetus would be diagnosed as thalassemia by prenatal diagnosis. Conclusion: Knowledge level and awareness of parents of thalassemic child regarding the disease is unsatisfactory. To reduce disease burden an awareness program regarding the disease and its prevention covering premarital screening, acceptance of prenatal diagnosis and therapeutic abortion is essential. Chatt Maa Shi Hosp Med Coll J; Vol.20 (1); January 2021; Page 12-15

A smart city necessitates spectrum and energy efficiency with increasing applications which demand an increasing number of nodes in the Internet of Things (IoT) system networks. In recent years, ra...

Image authentication based on image hashing has gained large attention in recent years. However, limited work has been done in color image hashing. Also, most of the existing methods are unable to detect tampering, if the composite rotation–scaling–translation (RST) distortion and tampering in a color image occur simultaneously. In this paper, an image hashing technique has been proposed based on convolutional stacked denoising auto-encoders (CSDAEs). In addition, a blind geometric correction approach is used to correct the composite RST distortion in the image. An input image is hierarchically mapped to a lower-dimensional hash code via CSDAEs, which have been trained for content-preserving operations (CPOs). An image map is generated from the hash via the decoder. The tampered area has been localized, by comparing the image map of hash codes from the reference image and the received image. The experimental results show that the proposed method is robust against most of the CPOs, especially to composite RST, a better trade-off between robustness and discrimination, and can localize the tampered regions. The receiver operating characteristics show that the proposed model is better than some of the state-of-the-art methods.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the role of knowledge hiding (KH) on academic performance, using three antecedents – relatedness with peers, territoriality of knowledge and performance motivation. It also looked into the moderating role of academic self-efficacy upon student’s KH behavior and academic performance. The research was grounded on the theory of reasoned action. Design/methodology/approachx Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the five hypotheses. The data was collected through a primary survey based on a structured questionnaire with a sample size of 324 students from the Indian higher education institutions. Findings The study found that performance motivation and territoriality are positively associated with KH, which is further positively related to students’ academic performance. Sense of relatedness had no influence upon KH behavior, implying that proximity of social relationships does not predict KH behavior among students. Additionally, it was also observed that while evasive (a situation where the knowledge hider deliberately provides incorrect, partial or misleading information) and rationalized KH (a situation where the knowledge hider tries to provide a rational justification for not sharing the knowledge) had a significant influence on the academic performance of the students, the effect of “playing dumb” was not significant. The study did not reveal any moderating effect of academic self-efficacy on all three forms of KH and academic performance. Practical implications The findings of the study are expected to be valuable for instructors, administrative authorities and policymakers at the higher education level, to create a more conducive teaching and learning environment. Out of the three hiding strategies, students indulge more often in rationalized KH. Based on the outcomes of this research, management may focus toward the creation of an institutional environment conducive toward knowledge sharing interdependency among students. Originality/value One of the novel contributions of this study is that it analyzes Indian higher education, providing a developing country perspective, thereby contributing to the body of knowledge in knowledge management and hiding. The study also intends to understand the interplay of constructs such as KH, territoriality, sense of relatedness and academic performance, which have not been discussed previously within the higher education context, thus making the research work original. The study was done among the students and hence, brings in the academic perspective in the KH literature, which has seen limited research impetus.

Objectives: To compare the efcacy of silodosin versus silodosin with deazacort in expulsion of lower end ureteric calculi, in terms of episodes of pain,stone expulsion rate,stone expulsion time ,analgesic requirements and side effects Introduction: Ureteric calculi represent 20% of urinary stones. Ureteroscopy and Shock wave lithotripsy proven the method of treatments for lower ureteric stones; however, they are expensive and not risk free. Aconservative approach is becoming more popular as a result of advances in pharmacological therapy which reduces the symptoms and helps in stone expulsion. We performed a randomized controlled prospective study to evaluate the efcacy of Deazacort in combination with alpha blocker silodosin in medical management of symptomatic lower Ureteric stones of ≤8 mm size. Material and methods: A prospective randomised controlled study was conducted on 60 patients, age ≥ 18 , who had unilateral lower ureteric stone of ≤ 8 mm. Patients were divided into three groups. Group 1 received silodosin 8 mg for 14 days,Group 2 received silodosin 8 mg plus deazacort 30mg daily for 14 days and Group 3 (control) received diclofenac potassium (75 mg ) when required. The patients were followed-up by ultrasonography ,plain radiograph KUB and computed tomography (in some cases). Results: There was a higher stone expulsion rate of 95% in Group 2 as compared to Group 1(85%) and Group 3(35%) . Group 2 showed a signicant advantage for stone expulsion time ,decreased pain episodes and analgesic use. Two patients, one in group 1 and group 2, reported retrograde ejaculation. Conclusion: The results showed that silodosin with deazacort , increases the stone expulsion rate, decrease the stone expulsion time, decreases the mean number of pain episodes and decreases the mean analgesic dosage requirement. But larger study is required to establish its efcacy for expulsion rate which will be statistically signicant.

BACKGROUND The breast tissue consists of both specialised epithelial cells and stroma. It is a site of a broad array of pathological alterations. Both benign and malignant lesions can occur in the breast. Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed female cancer accounting for 20 % of female malignancies globally. METHODS The study was carried out to evaluate the histopathological patterns of 589 breast lesions whose biopsied breast tissues were presented at the Pathology department of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, Tezpur, Assam, for a period of three (03) years from January 01, 2017 to December 31, 2019. RESULTS Out of 589 cases of breast lesions, 418 were benign breast lesions (70.97 %) and 171 were malignant (29.03 %) with a benign and malignant ratio of 2.44:1. Fibroadenoma breast was the most common benign breast disease were 264 out of 418 (63.15 %) and infiltrating duct carcinoma was the commonest malignant breast lesions, in this study there were 123 out of 171 (71.93 %). Among 123 cases of infiltrating duct carcinoma, 93 (75.61 %) were grade III ;27 (21.95 %) were grade II and 03 (2.44 %) were grade I as per Nottingham histologic score system in the study group. Metastatic lymph nodes were 89 (52.05 %) were seen in the malignant cases. Early presentation (stage 0, I and II) constituted 77 (45.45 %) while late presentation (stage III and VI) accounted for 94 (54.97 %) in the breast malignancy in the study. CONCLUSIONS Histopathological study plays very important role in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of breast lesions. This study highlighted the distinct incidences and pathological characteristics of wide range of breast diseases and affirmed that breast cancers in developing countries like India are characterised by late presentation. KEYWORDS Fibroadenoma, Duct Papilloma, Lipoma, Infiltrating Duct Carcinoma, Ductal Ca in Situ, Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, Lobular Carcinoma in situ, Medullary Carcinoma, Mucinous Carcinoma, Malignant Phyllodes

The study utilized the tree covers per cent, agroforestry suitability, present and future (2050) climate, agriculture vulnerability (2050), percentage of people living Below Poverty Line (BPL) data sets and manoeuvered them in GIS platform to understand the agroforestry extent, potentiality and the critical multidimensional relationship among them. The total agroforestry area in India (if defined the tree cover per cent greater than 10% on agricultural land) was found to be 28 million hectares that is approximately 17% of the total agriculture land area which is remarkably less (global average 43%). The analysis further revealed that the agriculture land potential in India towards the agroforestry suitability category (S1: High suitability) is alone 75.6 million hectares that are 2.7 times of total existing agroforestry extent. Among all agro-ecological regions of India, the Eastern Plain agro-ecological region has high cropland potentiality which will help significantly in magnifying agroforestry set-up in the future. The analysis further revealed a very high poverty per cent (41–80%) category has approximately 5.3 million hectares of land under agroforestry, whereas the cropland potentiality (category S1) towards agroforestry was found approximately four times of the present agroforestry extent. The Western Ghats and the Coastal Plain agro-ecological region maintain a diversified agroforestry environment that will face double risk in the future (2050) due to precipitation deficit and also from significant temperature increase. Our analysis highlights the important agroforestry-related findings that will assist crucially to the decision-makers of India for implementing synergic strategies/planning of agroforestry at country/state/district/village levels.

BACKGROUND The breast is composed of both specialised epithelial cells and stroma. Both benign and malignant lesions can occur in the breast as a palpable lump. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a rapid, easy to perform, minimally invasive and low cost first line high-diagnostic accuracy test for cytopathological evaluation of palpable breast lump with minimum complications. METHODS The study was carried out to evaluate the cytopathological patterns of 2706 palpable breast lumps by fine needle aspiration (FNA) procedure and cytohistopathological correlation of the available biopsied palpable breast lumps of the study in the Pathology department of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital, Assam, for a period of three years from July 01, 2016 to June 30, 2019. RESULTS Out of 2706 palpable breast lumps in the study, FNA smears of 19 (0.70 %) were inadequate for cytopathological reporting. Out of the remaining 2687 palpable breast lumps where FNA was adequate for cytopathological reporting, female patients (n = 2594) comprised 96.54 % and male patients (n = 93) comprised 3.46 % with a male and female ratio of 1:27.9. Out of the 2687 palpable breast lumps, 2318 were benign breast diseases (86.27 %) and 369 were malignant neoplasms (13.73 %), with a benign and malignant ratio of 6.28:1. Out of the benign breast lumps, fibroadenoma breast was seen in 1228 (52.98 %) and of the malignant neoplasms, infiltrating duct carcinoma was seen in 341 (92.41 %). Cytohistopathological correlation showed 98.70 % sensitivity, 99.38 % specificity, 99.35 % positive predictive value, 98.76 % negative predictive value, and 99.04 % diagnostic accuracy. CONCLUSIONS FNAC has high sensitivity and specificity in cytopathological diagnosis of palpable breast lumps. Based on the accurate cytopathological diagnosis of the palpable breast lumps, patients with palpable breast lumps can be given adequate treatment. KEYWORDS Fibroadenoma, Gynaecomastia, Duct Papilloma, Infiltrative Duct Carcinoma, Medullary Carcinoma, Mucinous Carcinoma, Malignant Phyllodes

Assam is a diverse land and so does it has a diverse expanse of folktale stories that widely shows the Assamese culture, the lifestyle and also its typical society. After reading the narratives of which has been taken in this research paper, the issue of women in Assamese folktales can be seen a matter of study and research, taking into consideration the aspects such as- position of women in Assamese society, identity of women, woman-woman relationship and women in the realm of class structure, and along with this a question definitely arises that do women have any hold of power in a society dominated by men and do they have any influence over the decision making aspects of men in a patriarchal society. The re-telling of Tejimola and The Tale of the Kite’s Daughter narratives is done with a feminist point of view where the role of the female characters emerge in a contemporary manner and not as what had been thought and said in earlier times. The main motive is to highlight how the women emerge as a strong persona in the patriarchal domain, although their age-old interpretations project them as weak, inferior and male-dependant.