Immunization of Children in a Rural Area of North Kashmir, India: A KAP Study.

Background: Knowledge, attitude and practices about immunization among mothers of children aged 1-2 years was assessed. Method: 300 mothers were administered a semi-structured questionnaire at PHC Hajan from 1st march to 1st may 2011 to elicit the information about the knowledge, attitude and practices of the mothers regarding immunization. Results: 100% of mothers knew that vaccination is beneficial and protects their children from diseases. 39% knew OPV protects from polio while only 1% were aware of protective role of BCG. All mothers knew about immunization in pregnancy but 86% were unaware about its preventive role. 26% mothers believed that 3 doses of T.T (tetanus toxoid) are to be given during pregnancy. Whereas 98% of children were completely immunized, 93% completed on schedule. Eighty percent of mothers reported of fever following DPT. All mothers had received tetanus toxoid during pregnancy. Conclusion: Considering mothers' poor knowledge and good attitude, health education on immunization is emphasized to improve their practices

Iterative Matrix Inversion Based Low Complexity Detection in Large/Massive MIMO Systems

Linear detectors such as zero forcing (ZF) or minimum mean square error (MMSE) are imperative for large/massive MIMO systems for both the downlink and uplink scenarios. However these linear detectors require matrix inversion which is computationally expensive for such huge systems. In this paper, we assert that calculating an exact inverse is not necessary to find the ZF/MMSE solution and an approximate inverse would yield a similar performance. This is possible if the quantized solution calculated using the approximate inverse is same as the one calculated using the exact inverse. We quantify the amount of approximation that can be tolerated for this to happen. Motivated by this, we propose to use the existing iterative methods for obtaining low complexity approximate inverses. We show that, after a sufficient number of iterations, the inverse using iterative methods can provide a similar error performance. In addition, we also show that the advantage of using an approximate inverse is not limited to linear detectors but can be extended to non linear detectors such as sphere decoders (SD). An approximate inverse can be used for any SD that requires matrix inversion. We prove that application of approximate inverse leads to a smaller radius, which in turn reduces the search space leading to reduction in complexity. Numerical results corroborate our claim that using approximate matrix inversion reduces decoding complexity in large/massive MIMO systems with no loss in error performance.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) Workshop on 5G RAN Design 2016, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysi

Genotype x environment interaction and stability analysis in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.)

Genotype x environment interaction was evaluated under eight environments during lentil growing season of 2013/14 and 2014/15 for grain yield and their component characters of twenty one promising genotypes selected from previous trial of lentil. The variances estimated due genotype, environment and genotype x environment interaction were found to be different significantly for all the characters studies indicating distinct nature of genotypes, environments and genotype x environment interactions in phenotypic expression. High estimates of sum of square (SS) for all the traits are expressed by environment. The explained percentage of grain yield by environment, genotype and genotype environment interaction were 54.86, 19.86 and 25.28 respectively. To find out the effects of GEI on grain yield and its attributing characters, the data were subjected to Additive Main effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) .The results finally indicated that AMMI stability value and AMMI biplot are informative methods to explore stability and adaptation pattern of genotypes in practical plant breeding and in subsequent variety recommendations. In addition, finding mega environments help to identify the most suitable lentil cultivars that can be recommended for areas within the mega-environment in either one or more test locations. The genotype RL39 (1.254 mt ha-1 ) and LL10071 (1.196 mt ha-1 ) produced higher grain yield) than all other genotypes over the environments and performed better at most of the places. The genotypes ,F2003-49L, Arun, 39-S-66L, RL-44, and ILL10071 were found to be comparatively stable as their performance were hardly affected by the G x E interaction and thus would perform well across a wide range of environments. These genotypes produced higher grain yield than all checks

Experimental investigation of the excess charge and time constant of minority carriers in the thin diffused layer of 0.1 ohm-cm silicon solar cells

An experimental method is presented that can be used to interpret the relative roles of bandgap narrowing and recombination processes in the diffused layer. This method involves measuring the device time constant by open-circuit voltage decay and the base region diffusion length by X-ray excitation. A unique illuminated diode method is used to obtain the diode saturation current. These data are interpreted using a simple model to determine individually the minority carrier lifetime and the excess charge. These parameters are then used to infer the relative importance of bandgap narrowing and recombination processes in the diffused layer

Dilogarithm Identities in Conformal Field Theory and Group Homology

Recently, Rogers' dilogarithm identities have attracted much attention in the setting of conformal field theory as well as lattice model calculations. One of the connecting threads is an identity of Richmond-Szekeres that appeared in the computation of central charges in conformal field theory. We show that the Richmond-Szekeres identity and its extension by Kirillov-Reshetikhin can be interpreted as a lift of a generator of the third integral homology of a finite cyclic subgroup sitting inside the projective special linear group of all $2 \times 2$ real matrices viewed as a {\it discrete} group. This connection allows us to clarify a few of the assertions and conjectures stated in the work of Nahm-Recknagel-Terhoven concerning the role of algebraic $K$-theory and Thurston's program on hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Specifically, it is not related to hyperbolic 3-manifolds as suggested but is more appropriately related to the group manifold of the universal covering group of the projective special linear group of all $2 \times 2$ real matrices viewed as a topological group. This also resolves the weaker version of the conjecture as formulated by Kirillov. We end with the summary of a number of open conjectures on the mathematical side.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures not include

Fluctuation induces evolutionary branching in a modeled microbial ecosystem

The impact of environmental fluctuation on species diversity is studied with a model of the evolutionary ecology of microorganisms. We show that environmental fluctuation induces evolutionary branching and assures the consequential coexistence of multiple species. Pairwise invasibility analysis is applied to illustrate the speciation process. We also discuss how fluctuation affects species diversity.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Seasonal and Altitudinal Prevalence of Fascioliasis in Buffalo in Eastern Nepal

Buffalo is the most important livestock commodities for milk, meat production and several other multipurpose uses distributed densely from southern tarai to northern mid-hills in Nepal. Among several internal parasitic diseases fascioliasis is highly economic one caused by Fasciola in buffaloes. However, there are only few studies carried on prevalence of fascioliasis emphasizing buffaloes in relation to seasonal (summer and rainy, and winter) and altitudinal variations. Therefore, we examined prevalence of fascioliasis seasonally and vertically. For the purpose, we selected two districts of eastern Nepal and sampled from low altitude area known as Madhesha ranging from 175-200, Dhankuta from 800-1200 m, and Murtidhunga from 1800-2200 m elevation from the sea level, representing tarai, mid hills and high hills, respectively. Altogether from February 2013 to January 2014 at every two months interval we collected 798 fecal samples from buffaloes; 282 from Murtidhunga, 239 from Dhankuta and 277 from Madhesha. The samples were examined microscopically for the presence of Fasciola eggs using sedimentation technique. Results showed that overall prevalence of fascioliasis in buffaloes was 39.9% (319/798), ranging highest 42.6%in Madhesha followed by 39.7% in Murtidhunga and 37.2% in Dhankuta, respectively. The prevalence of fascioliasis was found to be significantly (p <0.05) high in winter (44.9%) comparing to rainy season (34.4%). The prevalence of fascioliasis in buffaloes was relatively higher in low altitude than high altitude, although it was not statistically significant (p <0.05). In our findings the female buffaloes showed higher prevalence for fascioliasis than in male. Since the fascioliasis in buffaloes is highly endemic, thus strategic deworming in high risk period is recommended along with measure to prevent pasture contamination with buffalo feces

Tissue-specific gene silencing monitored in circulating RNA

Pharmacologic target gene modulation is the primary objective for RNA antagonist strategies and gene therapy. Here we show that mRNAs encoding tissue-specific gene transcripts can be detected in biological fluids and that RNAi-mediated target gene silencing in the liver and brain results in quantitative reductions in serum and cerebrospinal fluid mRNA levels, respectively. Further, administration of an anti-miRNA oligonucleotide resulted in decreased levels of the miRNA in circulation. Moreover, ectopic expression of an adenoviral transgene in the liver was quantified based on measurement of serum mRNA levels. This noninvasive method for monitoring tissue-specific RNA modulation could greatly advance the clinical development of RNA-based therapeutics