A study on seroprevalence of HIV among women attending obstetric care in a tertiary care hospital of South India with maternal and perinatal outcomes

Background: HIV is prevalent in epidemic proportions in India. Identifying the target population and effective intervention reduces chances of vertical transmission and new infection. Authors studied the seroprevalence of HIV among women attending obstetric care in a tertiary care hospital of South India and associated maternal and perinatal outcomes among seropositive women.Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of all women who were screened for HIV at Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre, Vani Vilas hospital, from January 2014 to December 2017 in their antenatal, intranatal and postnatal period. Demographic data of seropositive women, obstetric outcomes and status of children at 18months were obtained.Results: Of the 35,455 women who were screened, 0.28% were found positive for HIV. Percentage prevalence of HIV was highest in 2014 (0.32%). Majority of the seroprevalence belonged to age group of 25-29 years (44%), 32% illiterates, 82% homemakers and 79% belonged to urban areas. Unknown partner status in 22% and majority were diagnosed in antenatal period (66%). Of them 82% had favourable CD4 count. 74 % of them delivered live baby. Three maternal deaths were observed and anaemia (65%) was the major associated co-morbidity. Vaginal route was common mode of delivery (84%). Thirteen babies required NICU admission and 6 neonates deaths were encountered. Exclusive breastfeeding was practised in 91% of live births. 62% of children were found seronegative at 18 months follow up.Conclusions: Authors observed with adequate treatment to mother and prophylaxis to the baby, the burden of vertical transmission can be significantly reduced

A study of outcome of induction of labour with foley’s balloon in previous LSCS cases

Background: Induction of labour in a scarred uterus is a controversial topic in Obstetric practice, but in carefully selected and monitored cases never the less the outcome is gratifying. When the baby is non-salvageable, or in cases of IUFD, it is always desirable to achieve a vaginal delivery. Many of the professional organizations recommend induction of labour in previous LSCS. Thus, this study was done to evaluate the success rate, determinants of failure and complications of induction of labour with foley’s catheter in patients with previous 1 LSCS.Methods: 62 patients were recruited over a period of 1 year and studied at Vani Vilas Hospital, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, all with previous 1 LSCS. 34% of them were with past h/o 1 or more vaginal delivery. 8% were term pregnancies, 64% were between 28-32 weeks. Induction was done for IUFD in 56% and, HDP warranting termination in 44%. Induction done with Foley’s catheter, expulsion of catheter with filled bulb and uterine contraction initiation was taken as successful induction. The patient profile in cases of failure was noted.Results: 83% was the success rate for induction out of which 30% cases required additional PGE2 gel. Oxytocin and ARM alone or together were used for augmentation in 90% cases. Induction to foley’s expulsion average duration was 14 hours. Post expulsion delivery happened at an average time interval of 5 hours. One patient had rupture uterus during the course of augmentation.Conclusions: Induction can be done safely in carefully selected cases of previous LSCS with Foley’s Balloon

Pemeriksaan Laju Endap Darah (Led) Sebagai Indikator Terhadap Abnormalitas Organ Hati Kambing Lokal

This study aims to determine th relationship between changes in blood erythrocyte sedimentation rate of liver abnormalities in local goats. Abnormal liver classified in bleeding (hemorrhagic), thickening of the bile ducts (cholestatic), the formation of connective tissue (fibrosis) and swelling (hepatomegaly). Abnormal scoring from 0 (normal) to 5 (liver damage above 75%). Erythrocyte sedimentation rate blood test done at the Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Udayana. These results illustrate the influence of liver abnormalities of ESR values were analyzed with Spearman correlation coefficients according to Stell and Torrie (1991). Results showed 97% of local goats have the ESR value from 3 to 10 mm/24 hours with the type of liver damage such as bleeding 63%; swelling 44%; the formation of connective tissue 93% and 14% thickening of the bile duct.The results show that the value of the ESR is influenced by the presence of connective tissue formation (fibrosis), bleeding (hemorrhagic), and swelling (hepatomegaly) (P <0.05). It concluded that liver abnormalities in local goats, such as connective tissue formation (fibrosis), bleeding (hemorrhagic), and swelling (hepatomegaly) is correlated with the ESR so that the ESRs can be used as an indicator of liver abnormalities

DASBOARD INFORMASI MONITORING PELAPORAN PADA LEMBAGA PERLINDUNGAN SAKSI DAN KORBAN

Sistem informasi monitoring pelaporan pada Lembaga Perlindungan Saksi dan Korban akan sangat memberikan manfaat untuk perkembagan Instansi itu sendiri, aplikasi Monitoring ini akan memberikan kemudahan dalam proses pelaporan dan mencarinya. Pada Lembaga Perlindungan Saksi dan Korban dari segi pelaporan masih menggunakan sistem semi komputer dan masih menggunakan kertas sebagai media penyampaian laporan, sehingga akan menjadi masalah ketika terdapat dobel laporan dan terjadi kerusakan pada laporan itu sendiri, serta menyulitkan untuk melakukan pencarian laporan yang sudah diserahkan pada Sub-bagian Pelaporan. Pada tahap analisis sistem berjalan, menggunakan metode analisis SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, dan Threats) dan analisis kebutuhan elisitasi. Oleh karena itu diperlukan suatu media pelaporan yang memanfaatkan teknologi informasi sebagai media penyampaian laporan yang dapat menyediakan informasi mengenai laporan dan mempermudah penyampaian laporan kepada Sub-bagian Pelaporan, sehingga dapat menghasilkan yang bermanfaat bagi Lembaga Perlindungan Saksi dan Korban

Security and Privacy for the Modern World

The world is organized around technology that does not respect its users. As a precondition of participation in digital life, users cede control of their data to third-parties with murky motivations, and cannot ensure this control is not mishandled or abused. In this work, we create secure, privacy-respecting computing for the average user by giving them the tools to guarantee their data is shielded from prying eyes. We first uncover the side channels present when outsourcing scientific computation to the cloud, and address them by building a data-oblivious virtual environment capable of efficiently handling these workloads. Then, we explore stronger privacy protections for interpersonal communication through practical steganography, using it to hide sensitive messages in realistic cover distributions like English text. Finally, we discuss at-home cryptography, and leverage it to bind a user’s access to their online services and important files to a secure location, such as their smart home. This line of research represents a new model of digital life, one that is both full-featured and protected against the security and privacy threats of the modern world

Pulsar: Secure Steganography through Diffusion Models

Widespread efforts to subvert acccess to strong cryptography has renewed interest in steganography, the practice of embedding sensitive messages in mundane cover messages. Recent efforts at provably secure steganography have only focused on text-based generative models and cannot support other types of models, such as diffusion models, which are used for high-quality image synthesis. In this work, we initiate the study of securely embedding steganographic messages into the output of image diffusion models. We identify that the use of variance noise during image generation provides a suitable steganographic channel. We develop our construction, Pulsar, by building optimizations to make this channel practical for communication. Our implementation of Pulsar is capable of embedding $\approx 275$-$542$ bytes (on average) into a single image without altering the distribution of the generated image, all in the span of $\approx 3$ seconds of online time on a laptop. In addition, we discuss how the results of Pulsar can inform future research into diffusion models. Pulsar shows that diffusion models are a promising medium for steganography and censorship resistance

Meteor: Cryptographically Secure Steganography for Realistic Distributions

Despite a long history of research and wide-spread applications to censorship resistant systems, practical steganographic systems capable of embedding messages into realistic communication distributions, like text, do not exist. We identify two primary impediments to deploying universal steganography: (1) prior work leaves the difficult problem of finding samplers for non-trivial distributions unaddressed, and (2) prior constructions have impractical minimum entropy requirements. We investigate using generative models as steganographic samplers, as they represent the best known technique for approximating human communication. Additionally, we study methods to overcome the entropy requirement, including evaluating existing techniques and designing a new steganographic protocol, called Meteor. The resulting protocols are provably indistinguishable from honest model output and represent an important step towards practical steganographic communication for mundane communication channels. We implement Meteor and evaluate it on multiple computation environments with multiple generative models

CLUE: a randomized comparative effectiveness trial of IV nicardipine versus labetalol use in the emergency department

Abstract Introduction Our purpose was to compare the safety and efficacy of food and drug administration (FDA) recommended dosing of IV nicardipine versus IV labetalol for the management of acute hypertension. Methods Multicenter randomized clinical trial. Eligible patients had 2 systolic blood pressure (SBP) measures ≥180 mmHg and no contraindications to nicardipine or labetalol. Before randomization, the physician specified a target SBP ± 20 mmHg (the target range: TR). The primary endpoint was the percent of subjects meeting TR during the initial 30 minutes of treatment. Results Of 226 randomized patients, 110 received nicardipine and 116 labetalol. End organ damage preceded treatment in 143 (63.3%); 71 nicardipine and 72 labetalol patients. Median initial SBP was 212.5 (IQR 197, 230) and 212 mmHg (IQR 200,225) for nicardipine and labetalol patients (P = 0.68), respectively. Within 30 minutes, nicardipine patients more often reached TR than labetalol (91.7 vs. 82.5%, P = 0.039). Of 6 BP measures (taken every 5 minutes) during the study period, nicardipine patients had higher rates of five and six instances within TR than labetalol (47.3% vs. 32.8%, P = 0.026). Rescue medication need did not differ between nicardipine and labetalol (15.5 vs. 22.4%, P = 0.183). Labetalol patients had slower heart rates at all time points (P \u3c 0.01). Multivariable modeling showed nicardipine patients were more likely in TR than labetalol patients at 30 minutes (OR 2.73, P = 0.028; C stat for model = 0.72) Conclusions Patients treated with nicardipine are more likely to reach the physician-specified SBP target range within 30 minutes than those treated with labetalol. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT0076564