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Communities are characterized by common interests, common ecology, and common social system or structure. These characteristics, qualities, and processes involved in the community affect both health behaviors and health outcomes during disease outbreaks. Hence, health promotion theorists and practitioners emphasize working ‘with’ rather than ‘on’ communities. They believe health promotion, with all its experiences in community mobilization, empowerment, and health literacy programs, should be part of disease prevention and control efforts from the very beginning. Health promotion knowledge needs to be fully integrated into infectious disease control, especially in the context of outbreaks.

Technological breakthroughs in renewable energy technologies (RETs) enabled them to attain grid parity thereby making them potential contenders for existing conventional resources. To examine the market participation of RETs, this paper formulates a scheduling problem accommodating energy market participation of wind- and solar-independent power producers (IPPs) treating both conventional and RETs as identical entities. Furthermore, constraints pertaining to penetration and curtailments of RETs are restructured. Additionally, an appropriate objective function for profit incurred by conventional resource IPPs through reserve market participation as a function of renewable energy curtailment is also proposed. The proposed concept is simulated with a test system comprising 10 conventional generation units in conjunction with solar photovoltaic (SPV) and wind energy generators (WEG). The simulation results indicate that renewable energy integration and its curtailment limits influence the market participation...

This paper examines whether truckers have been over-stigmatized as HIV carriers in the country. Data were taken from cross-sectional surveys of clients of female sex workers conducted in 2006-2007 in 12 districts of the country. A total 4822 clients of female sex workers were covered in the survey. Low-income skilled/semi-skilled men, including non-agricultural/casual labor, and petty businessmen/small shop owners, have the largest share in the clients’ population. There was no significant difference between truckers and other sub-group of clients’ population in terms of consistent condom use with female sex workers and prevalence of HIV or STI. These evidences suggest that the contribution of truckers in HIV epidemic in India might to similar to other sub-groups of clients’ population. Thus, truckers might have been over-stigmatized as HIV carriers in the country. However, there is no doubt that truckers constitute an extremely important target group for the HIV prevention programs and these efforts must be continued to prevent new HIV infections in the country.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles with different voltage levels, powertrain structures, and vehicle variants are driving OEMs to develop and maintain multiple software systems including functions like torque assist, regenerative braking, generation and start-stop. Development of such complex software systems includes challenges like reusability, maintenance, variant management, complexity, testability and redundancy of these functions. This situation provides the opportunity for OEMs to explore common software system with acceptable effort, calculable risk and even time-to-market. Furthermore, the OEM has the possibility of being more flexible when selecting suppliers for base software and hardware and reducing dependency of a single system supplier. One of the main goals for the OEM is to improve containment of product/ process complexity, risk in addressing the challenges of complex software system and ensure it is hardware independent for seamless porting into various supplier hardware. Presented in this paper is a creative way of utilizing AUTOSAR with Advanced Software Developing Methods to scale this complex software system and optimize the business trend.

Smart City development centres around efficient resource management along with sustainable support to the environment. This paper presents methods for intelligent control of traffic lights for traffic management and resolving road congestion incidents. The increasing volume of traffic, along with ineffective management of road capacity, has contributed towards increasing number of congestion events on road networks. The congestion events may be managed through control of the sequence in which traffic lights turn green, along with modifying the time for which the lights are green for each phase. In this paper, optimal traffic light sequence is obtained for a single intersection (node) using the Hopfield Neural Network (HNN). The optimal green time (g i ) for the traffic lights is obtained using Genetic Algorithm (GA) for a 4 phase road network. It was observed that the HNN provides the optimal sequence of green lights in an average of 16 iterations. GA provides a value of g i that would maximise the traffic flow. Results of optimal g i are presented for various cycle times. It is found that the flow rate increases with the increase in green times (g i ).

Increasing global warming concerns and depletion of fossil fuels are the major reasons for increase in Electric Vehicles (EVs) adoption in the transportation sector. Transportation electrification is the one of key factors capable of curtailing the pollution levels globally. However, large population of EVs in distribution system can cause negative impacts too. To handle this issue, a two-stage charging framework has been proposed in this paper. In the first stage, EV owners schedule their vehicles to charge according to minimum cost in available period. This information then shear by the load aggregator to the second stage. There incentive based approach is proposed to manage the EVs for technical benefit of distribution system. This study is performed on the 123 bus unbalanced distribution system. The simulation results of various test cases are presented, discussed and compared to demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed two stage framework.

Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and MapReduce programming model is used for storage and retrieval of the big data. Big data can be any structured collection which results incapability of conventional data management methods. The Tera Bytes size file can be easily stored on the HDFS and can be analyzed with MapReduce. This paper provides introduction to Hadoop HDFS and MapReduce for storing large number of files and retrieve information from these files. In this paper we present our experimental work done on Hadoop by applying a number of files as input to the system and then analyzing the performance of the Hadoop system. We have studied the amount of bytes written and read by the system and by the MapReduce. We have analyzed the behavior of the map method and the reduce method with increasing number of files and the amount of bytes written and read by these tasks.

Globally, research indicates that monogamous married women living in slums are at heightened risk of HIV men’s risky sexual behaviour. Hence, to reduce the risk of HIV transmission, there is need to understand the number, nature and variation in transition of sexual partners of men in living in slums. This paper uses India’s National Family Health Survey-3 data to estimate the variation in the type of sexual partners among sexually active men age 15 - 54 with more than one sexual partner in last 12 months prior to the survey in eight slums of India. Among sexually active men, 1.3 percent reported having more than one sexual partner in the last 12 months prior to the survey. Men who are more likely to have two or more partners are those who are young, especially below age 25 years, never married, educated up to 5 years, and from middle class. There is a higher increase in the probability of sex with spouse from second last to the last sexual partner in non-slum areas than slum areas. However, in case of transition from other friends/relatives and female sex workers to spousal partners, there is a major decline in probability among non-slum men than slum men. These transitions are extremely important from the perspective of curbing the spread of HIV epidemic, especially in situations where women lack control over their own sexuality and seldom use condom in marital sex. Therefore, strategies focused in slums should either consider reducing men’s risky sexual behaviour or build capacities of women to negotiate safe sex in marital relationships or consider a combination of both.

Experimental study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant potential of sodium alginate coated probiotic Lactobacillus casei against chromium (VI)-induced oxidative stress in albino rats. Administration of chromium (Cr) VI significantly (p

The deregulation and introduction of green technologies are the two key developments took place in electricity sector during the last decade. These developments have brought in several features into the system and increased complexity of system at planning ans well as operation level of power system. This paper deals with one of the key procedure of power system operation i.e., resource scheduling. In this paper, multi-objective aspects of resource scheduling in deregulated environment are examined treating both conventional and renewable energy sources as identical entities as per the market participation is concerned. The scheduling problem is formulated as a multi-objective problem with both economic as well as environmental aspects. The network and conventional/thermal generator constraints are remodelled pertaining to the market participation of renewable energy sources. Also, different scheduling scenarios are generated for analyzing the variation of different system and market parameters. The simulation results confirms the influence of weight factors or the importance assigned to objectives while the same have also affected the network parameters like scheduled renewable energy, reserve offer to market. Therefore, the proposed methodology can help in generation company/ independent system operator (ISO) in the selection of particular scheduling scenario pertaining to imposed compliances on emissions/renewable energy deployment obligations.

Measurement reliability of the L4/5 lumbar multifidus (MF) muscles is high in older adults, but few studies have investigated measurement reliability of the abdominal and upper lumbar MF muscles in this age group. Objectives To determine measurement reliability of abdominal and lumbar MF muscles from a single ultrasound (US) image in older adults. Methods Resting thickness of rectus abdominis and obliquus externus, resting and contracted thickness of obliquus internus, transversus abdominis and lumbar MF, and resting cross-sectional area (CSA) of MF levels (L2-5) were obtained from US images of 92 community-dwelling older adults (aged 65–89 years). Measurements of images were undertaken by an experienced rater and repeated 7–10 days later for intra-rater, and by a second expert rater for inter-rater calculations. Intra-rater reliability was estimated for all muscles. Inter-rater reliability was estimated for all abdominal muscles and for L5 multifidus. Reliability was estimated by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results Intra-rater ICC(3,1) and inter-rater ICC(2,1) of resting thickness measures of all muscles and CSA of MF were ≥0.86. The ICCs for percentage thickness change were ≥0.76 for the abdominal muscles, and ≥0.42 for MF. Conclusions Measurement reliability of US imaging for abdominal and MF muscle thickness and MF CSA was high, and consistent with previous findings for younger adults. Reliability of percentage thickness change was lower suggesting caution is needed when using this as an outcome measure or study factor among older adults.

Gold nanoparticles have been deposited on synthetic calcite substrate by galvanic displacement reaction and electroless deposition methods. A comparative study has shown that electroless deposition is superior compared to galvanic displacement reaction for uniform deposition of gold nanoparticles on calcite. Characterization of the samples, prepared by two different deposition methods, was carried out by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE–SEM) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) measurements. FE–SEM studies prove that smaller nanoparticles of gold are deposited uniformly on calcite if electroless deposition method was employed and DRS measurements show the characteristic surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles.

The densities and viscosities of aqueous solutions of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-2000) and diammonium hydrogen citrate were determined for mass fractions from 0.05 to 0.5 at different temperatures of (298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15, and 318.15) K. The density data show a linear variation with mass fraction of the polymer and salt for all temperatures. The viscosity data of PEG 2000 and diammonium hydrogen citrate solutions were correlated as a function of mass fraction, using a nonlinear equation, for the five different temperatures covered in the present work. Densities and viscosities of PEG–diammonium hydrogen citrate two-phase systems have also been measured at (298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15, and 318.15) K and are correlated with composition. The tie-line lengths (TLL) of the aqueous two-phase systems have also been estimated.

Background In India, the prevalence of asthma has increased over the last two decades especially in children and young adults. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of asthma in school going children aged 5-10 and 11-15 years in the city of Coimbatore and determine the risk factors associated with it. Materials and methods A school based cross-sectional study was conducted at the urban field practice area of PSGIMSR, Coimbatore between 1st June 2011 and 31st August 2011. The questionnaire was filled by the parents and collected from the children. The data were analyzed using SPSS (11.5version). Results The prevalence of asthma among children aged 5-10 years was 9.5% (95% Confidence Interval (CI) 7.49 – 11.50) and among children aged 11-15 years was 7.27% (95% CI 5.40 – 9.14). The Risk factors significantly associated with asthma among children aged 5-10 years were positive family history of asthma (Odds Ratio (OR)=3.10, 95% CI 1.80 - 5.36), longer duration of time spent in front of television and computer (OR=2.75, 95% CI 1.44 - 5.25), having food allergies (OR=2.36, 95% CI 1.19 - 4.68), and low birth weight of the child (OR=1.79, 95% CI 1.08 - 2.98). The factors significantly associated with asthma among children aged 11-15 years were positive family history of asthma (OR=2.99, 95% CI 1.34 - 6.64), poor ventilation (OR= 4.94, 95% CI 2.72 – 8.93), and use of pillows made up of wool, foam or synthetic material (OR=2.7, 95% CI 1.31 - 5.58). Conclusion Our data suggests that there is a high prevalence of asthma among school going children in Coimbatore. Parental history of asthma was a risk factor in both age groups studied. Television viewing for more than 2 hours, low birth weight and food allergy are additional risk factors for children aged 5-10 years. Poor ventilation and use of pillows made up of wool/ foam/ synthetic material are other risk factors in 11-15 years old children. Appropriate preventive strategies may help reduce the risk of asthma. Children with low birth weight and a family history of asthma need careful evaluation and long term follow up. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nje.v2i1.6378 Nepal Journal of Epidemiology 2012;2 (1):171-178

Phase diagrams and liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) data of the aqueous poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-2000) + diammonium hydrogen citrate system (aqueous two-phase system) has been determined experimentally at (298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15, and 318.15) K. The effects of temperature on the binodal curve and tie-lines have been studied. The binodal curve was fitted to an empirical equation relating the concentrations of PEG 2000 and diammonium hydrogen citrate, and the coefficients were estimated for the respective temperatures. Tie line compositions were estimated and correlated using Othmer–Tobias and Bancroft equations, and the parameters are reported. The effect of temperature on the phase-forming ability in the investigated system has been studied based on a salting-out coefficient; obtained from fitting the binodal data to a Setschenow-type equation for each temperature. The effective excluded volume values were also calculated from the binodal data.

We investigated exchange bias as a function of temperature in nanoparticles of ferrimagnetic normal spinel NiCr2O4. The studied bulk compound exhibits ferrimagnetic and canted antiferromagnetic ordering at 68 K and 30 K respectively. Sample characterization was carried out using X-Ray, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) measurements. Magnetization measurements as a function of temperature has revealed interesting features. Magnetic isotherms of bulk and nanoparticle sample were also investigated at different temperatures. It was found that in nanoparticles, with decrease in temperature, exchange bias first increases, attains maximum value and then subsequently decreases. We argue that in nanoparticles, the higher exchange bias at 68 K is because of coexistence of ferrimagnetic and surface spin effect. However, the presence of glassy spin state may be the reason for decreasing exchange bias effect below Tc down to 5 K.

An easy one phase synthesis of monodisperse silver nanoparticles and their self-assembly has been reported. Thermal decomposition of silver acetate in diphenyl ether in the presence of oleic acid (cis-9-octadecenoic acid) and oleylamine (cis-9-octadecenoic amine) leads to the formation of silver nanoparticles. The amount of organic content present on the surface of Ag nanoparticles affects the self-assembly of nanoparticles. In the presence of oleic acid alone, no self-assembly was observed but the presence of oleyl amine along with oleic acid led to increased organic coating on the surface of silver nanoparticles resulting in the self-assembly (cubic or hexagonal) of monodisperse silver nanoparticles. The silver nanoparticles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), CHN analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and UV–visible spectroscopy.

There is a dearth of published research on uptake and utility of mental health apps in India, despite a rising global trend in the application of technology in the field of mental health. We describe the development and pilot testing of a self-help intervention for depression, PUSH-D (Practice and Use Self-Help for Depression) for urban Indians. This guided self-help app, with essential and optional zone sections, was developed to provide a comprehensive coverage of therapeutic strategies drawn from cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal therapy, supportive psychotherapy, and positive psychology. Pilot testing was carried out using a single group pre-, post- and follow-up design in 78 eligible participants. Participants were typically young adults with major depression or dysthymia and significant impairment in functioning. Almost two-thirds of the participants had never sought professional mental health help. Significant reductions in depression and improvement in the functioning and well-being were notedon standardized measures in participants completing all 10 essential zone sections. These gains were maintained at follow-up. The results were similar for partial completers, who completed fiveout of the 10 essential sections. PUSH-D is one of the first indigenously developed self-help apps for depression and it shows promise in reducing the treatment gap for depression in India.

Background: Pre-diabetes is a mounting health problem occurring worldwide. Microvascular complications are prone to occur during this stage. Early diagnosis and treatment delay progression to diabetes mellitus and microvascular complications. Aims and objectives of the study was to determine the prevalence of microalbuminuria, c-peptide and fundal changes in pre-diabetics.Methods: 125 pre-diabetic patients those who visited MGMCRI General Medicine OPD and admitted in wards were taken into the study after fulfilling the inclusion criteria and after obtaining written informed consent. All those study patient’s urine and blood sample were sent for analysis of microalbuminuria and C-peptide respectively. Fundus was examined for retinopathic changes.Results: Among 125 prediabetic participants, prevalence of microalbuminuria was 12.8%, c-peptide levels was elevated in 46.4 %, but none of the study participants had fundal diabetic retinopathy changes.Conclusions: The microvascular complications like microalbuminuria starts in the pre-diabetic stage itself. Prevalence of increased c-peptide levels and microalbuminuria was more in individuals who had both IFG and IGT. Elevated C peptide level and microalbuminuria were found to appear much earlier than retinopathy in prediabetes. Hence its use can enhance for early diagnosis of prediabetes.

Background: A straight septum is the exception rather than the rule. A deviated septum can be asymptomatic or can cause functional and cosmetic abnormality. Different surgeries have been proposed for correction of deviated septum but septoplasty has been the procedure of choice. Septoplasty is a more conservative surgery with fewer complications and endoscopic septoplasty has become increasingly popular over the last few decades. Methods: This is a comparative study conducted at a tertiary care centre over a period of 1 year on 100 cases to compare the efficacy of endoscopic septoplasty with conventional septoplasty. 50 cases underwent conventional septoplasty while the other 50 cases underwent endoscopic septoplasty. Relief from pre-operative symptoms, anatomical correction of deformity and intraoperative/postoperative complications were studied. Results: Patients belonging to endoscopic septoplasty group showed better symptomatic relief and lesser incidence of complications when compared to the conventional septoplasty group. Conclusions: Endoscopic septoplasty has better illumination and additional magnification which aid in accurate identification of pathology and precise excision of the deviated septal part. It is also useful for correction of posterior and high deviations of septum and for revision surgeries. Coventional septoplasty has got its own merits like dealing with situations in which septal damage is more and post trauma. Though better patient compliance, better relief from symptoms and lesser rate of complications give an edge for endoscopic over conventional septoplasty, both the procedures need to be done together in some situations to achieve optimal results.

The effect of using different anions (Cl − , SO 4 2− , NO 3 − , and CH 3 COO − ) during the synthesis of precursors to ZnO, by homogeneous precipitation, was studied. The precursors of ZnO were synthesized by homogeneous precipitation using various zinc salts, and urea as the precipitating agent. When Cl − and SO 4 2− were used as the anions, single precursor phases were obtained, while the remaining anions (NO 3 − , and CH 3 COO − ) produced mixed phases. All the precursors were calcined in air, based on their decomposition temperatures, to produce ZnO. The precursors and the oxides were characterized by an array of techniques including FT-IR, AAS, CHNS analysis, TGA, FE-SEM, TEM, UV–Vis spectroscopy, and XRD. The size and shape of the precursor particles and ZnO were found to depend on the anion used. The effect of varying the synthetic conditions such as concentrations of Zn 2+ source and urea were also studied.

Metallic silver was deposited on the surface of synthesized calcite via a simple electroless deposition method. Calcite with cubic morphology was prepared first by homogeneous precipitation and it was subsequently surface modified using ammonium oxalate. The electroless deposition was carried out using formaldehyde as the reducing agent and silver nitrate as the silver source. Both calcite and the silver deposited calcite were characterized by different techniques. Surface modification of calcite with ammonium oxalate is necessary for the deposition of silver and the size of the deposited silver particles could be controlled by changing the deposition parameters such as concentration of the reagents and the deposition time. Lower concentration of silver ions (e.g. 0.01 M AgNO3) and shorter deposition times (e.g. 30 min) lead to the formation of silver nanoparticles on calcite.

This study explores decision makers' perspectives on evidence-based policy (EBP) development using the case of TB/HIV co-infection in India. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted with purposively selected key national and international policy decision makers in India. Verbatim transcripts were processed and analysed thematically using QSR (NUD*IST 6). The decision makers were unequivocal in recognizing the TB/HIV co-infection as an important public health issue in India and stated the problem to be different than Africa. The need of having a "third programme" for co-infection was not felt. According to them, the public health management of this co-infection must be within the realm of these two programmes. The study also emphasized on decision makers' perspectives on evidence and the process of utilization of evidence for decision-making for co-infection. Study findings showed global evidence was not always accepted by the decision makers and study shows several examples of decision makers demanding local evidence for policy decisions. Decision makers did make interim policies based on global evidence but most of the time their mandate was to get local evidence. Thus, operations research/implementation science especially multi-centric studies emerge as important strategy for EBP development. Researcher-policy maker interface was a gap where role of researcher as aggressive communicator of research findings was expected.

Renewable energy technologies (RET) present an emission free means of energy harvesting in the current energy scenario demanding sustainable needs. However, the production process of RETs especially solar photovoltaic (SPV) is material and energy expensive process. In this paper such material and energy intensive production processes of SPV systems are analyzed. The systems are analyzed up to the production stage with focus given to energy and material differentiation among different stages of production. The evaluation of emissions during production stage is carried out for a 1KWp SPV system. A comparison is made between different types of technologies i.e., mono, poly, thin film CdTe and ribbon Si. Also, comparison of sustainability aspects of rooftop and ground mounted installations is carried out. Results indicate that, in case of mono Si technology emissions during wafer production phase are pronounced compared to cell and module preparation stages. In poly and thin film technologies, emission share of wafer stage is comparable with module preparation stages. In ribbon Si, energy inputs accounted for higher emissions rather than materials as in case of other technologies. In the mounting structures, in roof structures resulted in least emissions through material savings while, ground mounting structures are environmentally expensive due to high material consumption. Also, the emission share of materials used in production stage is reduced linearly from mono Si to ribbon Si when in roof mounting is used. Therefore, thin film CdTe, ribbon Si presents an environmentally cheaper options of harnessing solar energy and production processes of technologies like mono Si, poly Si need to be improved to make them environmentally sustainable.

Radar cross section (RCS) is one of the stealth signature by which an object/target can be identified at longer ranges. In stealth scenario it is always desirable to reduce the RCS. However sometimes it is also required to increase the RCS of certain targets in order to use them as a practice target for testing onboard weaponry, to detect our own targets/sail boats in the open sea. Corner reflectors are structures formed with two or three metal plates. Corner reflectors are designed to provide large mono static cross section over a wide range of frequencies and aspect angles. The corner reflector is used as an echo enhancement device on sail boats and other targets to improve their detect ability. The present paper deals with the study on the behavior of different types of corner reflectors with respect to different azimuth angles and frequencies. The study is also extended to determine the orthogonal error analysis of varies Corner Reflector that is the work emphasis the reduction in RCS due to orthogonality error between plates of reflectors occurred because of fabricated errors, mechanical stress, flatness. This study will be very much useful in assessing the target capability to cater to missile scenario. In order to do this analysis Matlab coding and Matlab GUI are used.

Emission free electric vehicle is one of potential entity through which global warming issues can be resolved. Besides greener transportation, EV can also be used to negotiate electricity utility costs imposed by several network constraints like load-demand balance, reliability criteria etc. Thriving on reliability assurance in modernized electric grids, a multi-beneficiary model exploiting EV capability of being a contingency reserve is developed in this paper. Additionally, variability of EV reserve procurement in conjunction with environmental constraints is examined through cost-emission analysis. Further, the threshold limit for economic and environmental balance is defined and evaluated. The proposed reserve procurement concept is then simulated on a test system with both conventional and renewable energy technologies (RETs). For enumerating cost emission analysis, various dispatch scenarios are put forward. The simulation results shows the potential of EV in both environmental and economic perspectives when participated in reserve market. It is also observed that, apart from cost and emission, technical performance of electric network is also altered. Also, the amount of RETs and EV procured by independent system operator (ISO) is influenced by the importance (weight factor) given to emission minimization objective. The results indicate that, apart from amount of EV procured, percentage share of different cost components are also influenced by both scheduling scenario and energy market prices.