Second order statistics of NLOS indoor MIMO channels based on 5.2 GHz measurements

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Human Immunodeficiency Virus Related Knowledge, Risk Perception and Practices among Married Women of Reproductive Age: A Cross-sectional Study from Mid-western Development Region, Nepal

Background: Despite the implementation of anti.human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) interventions, it has continued to spread from high risk to the low risk population population with the devastating social, economic and health consequences. Aim: The aim of the following study is to identify HIV related knowledge, risk perceptions and practices among married women of reproductive age (MWRA) in Mid-Western Development Region, Nepal.Subjects and Methods: A community based, cross.sectional study was conducted during May-December 2010 among 618 MWRA in Mid-western Development Region, Nepal. Multistage random sampling was followed wherein four districts, representing each ecological zone were selected in the first stage. Nine Village Developments Committees with the total 81 clusters were selected in the second and third stages. Finally, 7/8  participants/cluster were selected randomly. Household interviews were conducted using pretested structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16.0 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). Percentages, mean, Chi-square value and odds ratio were calculated. Results: Nearly three quarters (434/618) of all participants had heard about the HIV. Radio was the most common source of the information 73.3% (318/434) amongst all sources. Unsafe sex 55.3% (240/434), infected blood transfusion 33.2% (144/434), needle sharing 24.7% (107/434) and mother to child transmission 4.1% (18/434) were reported modes of HIV transmission. Condom use during extramarital sex 51.8% (225/434), use of sterilized syringes 24.2% (105/434), restricting sex within couple 22.6% (98/434) and blood safety 20.3% (88/434) were reported HIV preventive measures. Extramarital sex, needle sharing and sharing of the razors/blades were perceived to be the risk behaviors. About 4.9% (30/618) had extramarital sexual experience amongst all participants. Only a quarter (8/30) of those who had extramarital sex used condom regularly.Conclusions: Almost half of the MWRA had limited awareness on HIV transmission and preventive measures. There was poor HIV preventive practices; indicating knowledge-behavior gaps. Awareness raising and behavior change interventions are recommended.Keywords: Human immunodeficiency virus, Knowledge, Married women of reproductive age, Nepal, Practice, Risk perceptio

How willing are you to accept sexual requests from slightly unattractive to exceptionally attractive imagined requestors?

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below.In their classic study of differences in mating strategies (Clark & Hatfield, 1989), men and women demonstrated a striking difference in interest in casual sex. The current study examined the role of requestor physical attractiveness (slightly unattractive, moderately attractive and exceptionally attractive) on men's and women's willingness to accept three different requests (go out, come to apartment, go to bed) in a questionnaire study. We tested two hypotheses, using a sample of 427 men and 443 women from three countries. Hypothesis 1 states that men, relative to women, will demonstrate a greater willingness to accept the “come to apartment” and “go to bed” requests but not the “go out” request for all three levels of requestor attractiveness. This hypothesis reflects Clark and Hatfield's (1989) main findings. Hypothesis 2 states that the physical attractiveness of a potential partner will have a greater effect on women's than on men's willingness to accept all three requests, and particularly for the explicit request for casual sex. The results partially supported Hypothesis 1 and fully supported Hypothesis 2. The discussion highlights limitations of the current research and presents directions for future research

Impaired interferon-γ responses, increased interleukin-17 expression, and a tumor necrosis factor–α transcriptional program in invasive aspergillosis

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2009 Oxford University Press.Background - Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is the most common cause of death associated with fungal infection in the developed world. Historically, susceptibility to IA has been associated with prolonged neutropenia; however, IA has now become a major problem in patients on calcineurin inhibitors and allogenic hematopoetic stem cell transplant patients following engraftment. These observations suggest complex cellular mechanisms govern immunity to IA. Methods - To characterize the key early events that govern outcome from infection with Aspergillus fumigatus we performed a comparative immunochip microarray analysis of the pulmonary transcriptional response to IA between cyclophosphamide-treated mice and immunocompetent mice at 24 h after infection. Results - We demonstrate that death due to infection is associated with a failure to generate an incremental interferon-γ response, increased levels of interleukin-5 and interleukin-17a transcript, coordinated expression of a network of tumor necrosis factor–α-related genes, and increased levels of tumor necrosis factor–α. In contrast, clearance of infection is associated with increased expression of a number genes encoding proteins involved in innate pathogen clearance, as well as apoptosis and control of inflammation. Conclusion - This first organ-level immune response transcriptional analysis for IA has enabled us to gain new insights into the mechanisms that govern fungal immunity in the lung.The BBSRC, CGD Research Trust, and the MRC

In their own words: A qualitative study exploring influences on the food choices of university students

Issue addressed: University students generally make independent decisions regarding food choices. Current research about knowledge of Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG), sources of nutrition information and influences on food choices for this group is scarce. Methods: Qualitative data were collected from gender‐separated focus groups comprising four female (n = 31) and four male (n = 18) to identify: knowledge of ADG; sources of nutrition information; factors that influence food choices; perceived relevant nutrition messages and how best to deliver them. Results: Gaps in knowledge were identified particularly regarding number of serves and serving size for food groups. Social media was the most commonly reported source of knowledge. Social media was also a major influence on food choice due to its impact on body ideals. Conclusion: Current health promotion nutrition messages were perceived irrelevant given the focus on long‐term health risks. Health and adhering to the ADG were not identified as important. The desire to look a particular way was the major influence on food choices. So what? While there is an awareness of ADG, our participants made a deliberate decision not to follow them. This provides a challenge for developing relevant preventive health messages for this target audience

Operational Semantics of Process Monitors

CSPe is a specification language for runtime monitors that can directly express concurrency in a bottom-up manner that composes the system from simpler, interacting components. It includes constructs to explicitly flag failures to the monitor, which unlike deadlocks and livelocks in conventional process algebras, propagate globally and aborts the whole system's execution. Although CSPe has a trace semantics along with an implementation demonstrating acceptable performance, it lacks an operational semantics. An operational semantics is not only more accessible than trace semantics but also indispensable for ensuring the correctness of the implementation. Furthermore, a process algebra like CSPe admits multiple denotational semantics appropriate for different purposes, and an operational semantics is the basis for justifying such semantics' integrity and relevance. In this paper, we develop an SOS-style operational semantics for CSPe, which properly accounts for explicit failures and will serve as a basis for further study of its properties, its optimization, and its use in runtime verification

Computing a rectilinear shortest path amid splinegons in plane

We reduce the problem of computing a rectilinear shortest path between two given points s and t in the splinegonal domain \calS to the problem of computing a rectilinear shortest path between two points in the polygonal domain. As part of this, we define a polygonal domain \calP from \calS and transform a rectilinear shortest path computed in \calP to a path between s and t amid splinegon obstacles in \calS. When \calS comprises of h pairwise disjoint splinegons with a total of n vertices, excluding the time to compute a rectilinear shortest path amid polygons in \calP, our reduction algorithm takes O(n + h \lg{n}) time. For the special case of \calS comprising of concave-in splinegons, we have devised another algorithm in which the reduction procedure does not rely on the structures used in the algorithm to compute a rectilinear shortest path in polygonal domain. As part of these, we have characterized few of the properties of rectilinear shortest paths amid splinegons which could be of independent interest

Two Decades Of Pelagic Ecology Of The Western Antarctic Peninsula

Significant strides in our understanding of the marine pelagic ecosystem of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region have been made over the past two decades, resulting from research conducted aboard ARSV Laurence M. Gould and RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer. These advances range from an understanding of the physical forcing on biology, to food web ecology (from microbes to top predators), to biogeochemical cycling, often in the larger context of rapid climate warming in the region. The proximity of the WAP to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and WAP continental shelf bathymetry affects the hydrography and helps structure the biological community. Seasonal, spatial, and interannual variability at all levels of the food web, as well as the mechanisms supporting their production, are now more clearly understood. New tools and technologies employed in the region were critical for making this research possible. As a result, our knowledge of the WAP pelagic ecosystem during a time of rapid climate change has vastly improved