Cooking practices, air quality, and the acceptability of advanced cookstoves in Haryana, India: an exploratory study to inform large-scale interventions.

BackgroundIn India, approximately 66% of households rely on dung or woody biomass as fuels for cooking. These fuels are burned under inefficient conditions, leading to household air pollution (HAP) and exposure to smoke containing toxic substances. Large-scale intervention efforts need to be informed by careful piloting to address multiple methodological and sociocultural issues. This exploratory study provides preliminary data for such an exercise from Palwal District, Haryana, India.MethodsTraditional cooking practices were assessed through semi-structured interviews in participating households. Philips and Oorja, two brands of commercially available advanced cookstoves with small blowers to improve combustion, were deployed in these households. Concentrations of particulate matter (PM) with a diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) related to traditional stove use were measured using real-time and integrated personal, microenvironmental samplers for optimizing protocols to evaluate exposure reduction. Qualitative data on acceptability of advanced stoves and objective measures of stove usage were also collected.ResultsTwenty-eight of the thirty-two participating households had outdoor primary cooking spaces. Twenty households had liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) but preferred traditional stoves as the cost of LPG was higher and because meals cooked on traditional stoves were perceived to taste better. Kitchen area concentrations and kitchen personal concentrations assessed during cooking events were very high, with respective mean PM2.5 concentrations of 468 and 718 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour outdoor concentrations averaged 400 µg/m3. Twenty-four hour personal CO concentrations ranged between 0.82 and 5.27 ppm. The Philips stove was used more often and for more hours than the Oorja.ConclusionsThe high PM and CO concentrations reinforce the need for interventions that reduce HAP exposure in the aforementioned community. Of the two stoves tested, participants expressed satisfaction with the Philips brand as it met the local criteria for usability. Further understanding of how the introduction of an advanced stove influences patterns of household energy use is needed. The preliminary data provided here would be useful for designing feasibility and/or pilot studies aimed at intervention efforts locally and nationally

A Review on Antiphishing Framework

Phishing is an attack that deals with social engineering system to illegally get and utilize another person's information for the benefit of authentic site for possess advantage (e.g. Take of client's secret word and Visa precise elements during online correspondence). It is influencing all the significant areas of industry step by step with a considerable measure of abuse of client qualifications. To secure clients against phishing, different hostile to phishing procedures have been suggested that takes after various methodologies like customer side and server side insurance. In this paper we have considered phishing in detail (counting assault process and grouping of phishing assault) and investigated a portion of the current sites to phishing strategies alongside their points of interest and disadvantages

Adjusting for treatment switching in the METRIC study shows further improved overall survival with trametinib compared with chemotherapy

Trametinib, a selective inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1 (MEK1) and MEK2, significantly improves progression-free survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with BRAF V600E/K mutation–positive advanced or metastatic melanoma (MM). However, the pivotal clinical trial permitted randomized chemotherapy control group patients to switch to trametinib after disease progression, which confounded estimates of the overall survival (OS) advantage of trametinib. Our purpose was to estimate the switching-adjusted treatment effect of trametinib for OS and assess the suitability of each adjustment method in the primary efficacy population. Of the patients randomized to chemotherapy, 67.4% switched to trametinib. We applied the rank-preserving structural failure time model, inverse probability of censoring weights, and a two-stage accelerated failure time model to obtain estimates of the relative treatment effect adjusted for switching. The intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis estimated a 28% reduction in the hazard of death with trametinib treatment (hazard ratio [HR], 0.72; 95% CI, 0.52–0.98) for patients in the primary efficacy population (data cut May 20, 2013). Adjustment analyses deemed plausible provided OS HR point estimates ranging from 0.48 to 0.53. Similar reductions in the HR were estimated for the first-line metastatic subgroup. Treatment with trametinib, compared with chemotherapy, significantly reduced the risk of death and risk of disease progression in patients with BRAF V600E/K mutation–positive advanced melanoma or MM. Adjusting for switching resulted in lower HRs than those obtained from standard ITT analyses. However, CI are wide and results are sensitive to the assumptions associated with each adjustment method

Comparative study on usefulness of modified WHO Partograph in management of labour at one of the rural teaching institutes of Gujarat, India

Background: Modified WHO Partograph is a simple, inexpensive pre-printed form on which labour observation are recorded. It generally comprises three sections of information: maternal condition, fetal condition and labor progress. To study on usefulness of Modified WHO Partograph in management of labour of low risk women, this indirectly improved maternal and perinatal outcome.Methods: In this study the progress of labour of 150 women with uncomplicated full term pregnancies with cephalic presentation in active labour was studied using modified WHO partograph. 150 historical matched controls comprising of low risk women who delivered without the use of partograph were identified from the labour register and their course of labour studied. The hospital records were studied to obtain the demographic variables. Maternal and perinatal outcome was analyzed for both cases and controls.Results: The emergency cesarean section rate was reduced from 38.7% in controls to 24.7% in cases and both are significant statistically. None of the cases had labour beyond 16 hours, thus indicating significant reduction in prolonged labour. Neonatal intensive care admissions decreased from 18.6% in controls to 6% in cases indicating an improved maternal and neonatal outcome.Conclusions: Modified WHO Partograph work as “early alarming warning system” which help in detecting delayed progress of labour which improves maternal as well as perinatal outcome

A fuzzy logic controller based mid-term load forecasting with renewable penetration in Assam, India

An accurate mid-term load forecasting (MTLF) tool is an essential part of power systems planning and sustainable development. In order to compensate the extra uncertainties, the power systems with high renewable penetration need even more accurate MTLF tool. The electric load demand is highly prejudiced by the thermal inertia due to the local climatic factors. Therefore, the accuracy of an MTLF method is highly dependent on the incorporated climatic factors. This paper proposes a fuzzy logic comptroller based MTLF method with renewable penetration. In order to achieve a higher degree of forecasting accuracy proposed method incorporated several climatic factors in the forecasting process. The study is done in Assam, a state of India and the proposed method is utilized to forecast the daily average load demand for one month. The forecasting accuracy of the proposed method is compared with one of most commonly used tool for MTLF called artificial neural network (ANN). The empirical results affirm the superiority of the proposed method over the ANN

Validation of CAE based Methodology to Predict Sloshing Noise in Automotive Fuel Tank

Due to advancement in technology major noise sources in an automotive car such as engine, transmission, aerodynamic noise, tyre road noise have significantly reduced. Thus sources of noise such as sloshing noise in a fuel tank which previously did not contribute much in the overall SPL have become more significant now. Also in high end luxury cars and hybrid cars sloshing noise is considered as an irritant. All major international OEMs and their suppliers try to reduce sloshing noise by various design modifications in the fueltank

Prospective study on outcome of post-partum intrauterine contraceptive device insertion at tertiary level rural health institute of Gujarat, India

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the acceptance, safety, efficacy, complications and expulsion rate of post-partum intrauterine contraceptive device (PPIUCD) insertion among post-partum pregnant women in a rural tertiary care center. Objective of this study was assessment of the efficacy and safety of post-partum IUCD insertion. Comparing the complications and client satisfaction in both groups (intra caesarean insertion versus vaginal route of insertion).Methods: This is a prospective study conducted at one of the rural tertiary care teaching institution. A total of 150 patients with caesarean or vaginal deliveries had PPIUCD insertions and they were followed up for a period of one year. The outcome measures analyzed were menstrual irregularities, vaginal discharge, pelvic infection and perforation and efficacy measures - failure, expulsion and removal. Data are expressed in frequency and percentage. Chi square test was used for comparison and P value <0.05 was considered significant.Results: The study shows that PPIUCD is an effective intervention in both caesarean and vaginal delivery with non-significant differences in safety and efficacy depending on the route of insertion. There was no case of perforation and no significant risk of infection in either caesareans or delivery. Spontaneous expulsion occurred in two cases inserted by vaginal route. Missing string incidence is high in the caesarean group compared to vaginal insertion.Conclusions: PPIUCD is a safe, effective and long term reversible method of contraception and should be encouraged by public awareness and community acceptance

COVID-19: AN UPDATE ON THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STATUS OF SOUTH INDIA

Global emergency due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-COV-2) and associated COVID-19 necessitates an engaged, integrated, interdisciplinary, and rapid response from the scientific community. India has had 4·4 million cases of COVID-19, the second most in the world after the USA, with 75,062 officially confirmed deaths from the disease as of Sept 10, 2020. Total of 27,688,740 confirmed cases and 8, 99,315 death cases were reported as per WHO on Sept 10, 2020 at 10.28 AM, CEST. The United States of America, India, Brazil and Russia recorded the highest cases in the world. We describe here, the outbreak of COVID-19 among the five major South Indian states and the data were collected from various Government authorised websites and the same were comparatively studied among five different states from March to July 15, 2020. In south India, Tamil Nadu reports the highest cases when compared to other states and the least cases were found to be among the state of Kerala as per the study period

Effect of bilberry juice on indices of muscle damage and inflammation in runners completing a half-marathon: a randomised, placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Emerging evidence indicates that fruits rich in polyphenols may attenuate exercise-induced muscle damage and associated markers of inflammation and soreness. This study was conducted to determine whether bilberry juice (BJ), which is particularly rich in polyphenols, reduces markers of muscle damage in runners completing a half marathon. Methods: A total of 21 recreationally trained runners (age 30.9 ± 10.4 y; mass 71.6 ± 11.0 kg; M=16; F=5) were recruited to a single blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel study. Participants were block randomised to consume 2 x 200 ml of BJ or energy-matched control drink (PLA) for 5 d before the Sheffield Half Marathon, on race day, and for 2 days post-race. Measurements of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), muscle damage (creatine kinase; CK) and inflammation (c-reactive protein ; CRP) were taken at baseline, pre-race, post-race, 24 h post-race and 48 h post-race. The effect of treatment on outcome measures was analysed using magnitude-based inferences based on data from 19 participants; 2 participants were excluded from the analyses because they did not provide samples for all time points. Results: The half marathon caused elevations in DOMS, CRP and CK. BJ had a possibly harmful effect on DOMS from pre-race to immediately post-race (11.6%, 90% CI ± 14.7%), a likely harmful effect on CRP from pre-race to 24 h post-race (mean difference ES 0.56, 90% CI ± 0.72) and a possibly harmful effect on CRP from pre-race to 48 h post-race (ES 0.12, 90% CI ± 0.69). At other time points, the differences between the BJ and PLA groups in DOMS and CRP were unclear, possibly trivial or likely trivial. Differences in the changes in CK between BJ and PLA were unclear at every time point other than from baseline to pre-race, where BJ had a possibly harmful effect on reducing muscle damage (ES 0.23, 90% CI ± 0.57). Conclusion: Despite being a rich source of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals, BJ evoked small to moderate increases in exercise-induced DOMS and CRP. Further larger studies are required to confirm these unexpected preliminary results