Water Management and Settlement Patterns in South India from c. eleventh century to sixteenth century A.D.

This study examines the relationship between water infrastructure, agricultural intensification, and political complexity in the Raichur region of southern India (or the Deccan) from the 11th – 16th centuries AD. In this period, regional polities expanded their territorial control and competed for strategically and economically valuable areas, such as the Raichur frontier. Using archaeological data, inscriptions, and other historical evidence, this inquiry demonstrates that the spread of state society into the frontier zone of Raichur did not by itself necessitate monumental investments in agricultural intensification. However, when these frontier zones were contested for economic and strategic reasons, local elites came to amass greater allegiance and control over resources that allowed them to construct and maintain hydraulic infrastructure. The use of archaeological data dismantles neat divisions of periodization and dynastic divides that often mark the study of early medieval and early modern South Asia, hitherto largely based on written materials. Instead, it elucidates how regional powers depended on the capacity of local elites to control and extract critical resources such as agricultural surplus from frontier areas through their control over water resources. The primary data for this dissertation were collected through a systematic surface survey at three places in the Raichur district: Gabbur, Maliabad, and Kalmala. Each of these places presents a different narrative of historical development from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. The combination of archaeological survey with study of epigraphic data and satellite imagery helped overcome issues of chronology and visibility in an ever-changing landscape, to reveal a narrative of uncertainty and contestation that remains invisible in court chronicles as well as inscriptions. The spatial distributions of different water technologies, when juxtaposed against epigraphic data, demonstrate the varying courses of agricultural intensification and political processes in the region. A landscape approach to archaeological remains allows this study to reveal the long life cycles and after-lives of reservoirs constructed in the Raichur frontier, and to explore how they affected and were affected by the regional politics of southern India

Pregnancy and labor outcomes in squat versus western style sitting toilet users: a pilot study

Background: Squatting posture may appear outdated and primitive, but in the antenatal period, it is an important resistance exercise to strengthen the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles which are believed to potentially prepare the women for a more natural delivery. No study till date has evaluated the effect of type of toilet seat regularly used during pregnancy. This was a pilot study to assess obstetric outcomes in antenatal women using squat versus western style sitting toilet seat.Methods: In an observational prospective pilot study, low risk primigravida at 28-32 weeks gestation were recruited from the outpatient department and divided into two groups after matching baseline characteristics. Group I (n=50) included women regularly using squatting type toilet seat and group II (n=50) comprised women using western style toilet seat. Pregnancy was followed till delivery; obstetric and neonatal outcomes were noted.Results: Squatting group, as compared to sitting type seat users, had lower incidence of vaginal discharge (10% vs 16%), urinary tract infection(12% vs. 24%), constipation (2% vs. 6%), labor induction (52% vs. 58%), shorter second-stage duration (0.60 vs. 1.24 hours) and a higher incidence of normal vaginal delivery (94% vs. 86%), albeit not statistically significant. NICU admissions (16% vs. 20%) and mean birth weight (2.83 vs. 2.97 kg) were comparable in the two groups.Conclusions: Squatting type toilet seat users had many favourable obstetric outcomes, especially a higher incidence of normal vaginal delivery; although, the difference was not statistically significant. Large community based surveys in this regard can reveal the true effects of squatting type toilet seat on pregnancy and labour outcomes

Finding history: the locational geography of Ashokan inscriptions in the Indian subcontinent

Abstrac

The effect of machine learning explanations on user trust for automated diagnosis of COVID-19

Recent years have seen deep neural networks (DNN) gain widespread acceptance for a range of computer vision tasks that include medical imaging. Motivated by their performance, multiple studies have focused on designing deep convolutional neural network architectures tailored to detect COVID-19 cases from chest computerized tomography (CT) images. However, a fundamental challenge of DNN models is their inability to explain the reasoning for a diagnosis. Explainability is essential for medical diagnosis, where understanding the reason for a decision is as important as the decision itself. A variety of algorithms have been proposed that generate explanations and strive to enhance users' trust in DNN models. Yet, the influence of the generated machine learning explanations on clinicians' trust for complex decision tasks in healthcare has not been understood. This study evaluates the quality of explanations generated for a deep learning model that detects COVID-19 based on CT images and examines the influence of the quality of these explanations on clinicians’ trust. First, we collect radiologist-annotated explanations of the CT images for the diagnosis of COVID-19 to create the ground truth. We then compare ground truth explanations with machine learning explanations. Our evaluation shows that the explanations produced by different algorithms were often correct (high precision) when compared to the radiologist annotated ground truth but a significant number of explanations were missed (significantly lower recall). We further conduct a controlled experiment to study the influence of machine learning explanations on clinicians' trust for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Our findings show that while the clinicians’ trust in automated diagnosis increases with the explanations, their reliance on the diagnosis reduces as clinicians are less likely to rely on algorithms that are not close to human judgement. Clinicians want higher recall of the explanations for a better understanding of an automated diagnosis system

Expression of p53 and bcl2 in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth-most common malignancy worldwide. Despite advances in radiotherapy and surgical treatment, survival rates have not changed significantly in the last 40 years. Molecular markers are currently being identified that can determine prognosis preoperatively by routine tumor biopsy, lead- ing to improved management of HNSCC patients. Aim: The aim of the present study was to demonstrate the expression of p53 and bcl2 proteins in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck (HNSCC) and to correlate the expression of p53 and bcl2 with clinical staging (AJCC) and WHO histological grading of SCC. Materials and methods: The study population comprised 50 cases of HNSCC. Tissue sections from these cases were subjected to hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining using p53 and bcl2, and a comparative analysis of the results was performed. Cases of colon carcinoma and benign lymphoid hyperplasia were used as positive controls for p53 and bcl2, respectively. Results: Positivity for p53 was recorded in 30 cases (30/50), while positivity for bcl2 was recorded in 44 cases (44/50). Positivity for p53+/bcl2+ coexpression was seen in 28 cases (28/50). The frequency of p53 expression was associated with tumor histologic grade (p=0.02), increasing lymph node involvement (p=0.01), and clinical stage (p=0.038). The frequency of bcl2 expression was associated with histological grade (p=0.02) and increasing lymph node involvement (p=0.028), but not with clinical stage (p=0.242). Moreover, the combined p53+/bcl2+ expression was significantly associated with histo- logical grade (p=0.02) and lymph node involvement (p=0.01). Conclusion: Study of p53 and bcl2 expression may provide clinicians with more exact information in order to evaluate tumor aggressiveness and survival rates. [Arch Clin Exp Surg 2016; 5(3.000): 160-168

Redo aortic surgery: Does one versus multiple affect outcomes?Central MessagePerspective

Objective: Redo aortic surgery has a higher risk of morbidity and mortality because it is technically complex due to mediastinal adhesions, infection, and previously implanted prostheses. In this study, we sought to benchmark our single-center experience comparing outcomes in patients undergoing aortic surgery after 1 versus multiple previous cardiac operations. Methods: Between 2004 and 2019, 429 patients underwent redo aortic surgery. They were classified as aortic surgery after 1 previous surgery (first redo surgery, n = 360) and aortic surgery after 2 or more (multiple) previous surgeries (multiple redo surgery, n = 69). Postoperative outcomes and long-term survival were compared, and risk factors for mortality were identified. Results: Thirty-day mortality was lower in first redo surgery compared with multiple redo surgery (12.3% vs 21.7%, P = .03). Age, cardiopulmonary bypass time, intra-aortic balloon pump use, postoperative cerebrovascular accident, absence of postoperative atrial fibrillation, intra-aortic balloon pump, and multiple redo surgery were independent predictors of 30-day mortality. Long-term survival was similar at 15 years. Patients who received first redo surgery were older (57.9 ± 14.0 years vs 50.3 ± 15.8 years, P = .0001) and had a higher incidence of hypertension (84.7% vs 73.9%, P = .02), whereas patients who received multiple redo surgery had a higher incidence of cerebrovascular disease (31.9% vs 20.3%, P = .03). Aortic valve replacement was the most common previous operation with higher incidence in multiple redo surgery. Incidence of previous aortic surgery was similar. Cardiopulmonary bypass (246 ± 67.3 minutes vs 219.9 ± 57.5 minutes, P = .009) and crossclamp times (208.2 ± 51.8 vs 181.9 ± 50.8 minutes, P = .004) were longer in multiple redo surgery. Incidence of reentry injury and balloon pump insertion were similar. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation use was higher in multiple redo surgery. Postoperative complications occurred at similar rates, except for higher incidence of dialysis in multiple redo surgery (14.5% vs 7.2%, P = .04). Conclusions: Multiple redo aortic procedures have a higher morbidity and mortality compared with first redo aortic procedures, with linearly increasing short-term mortality risk but similar long-term survival with the number of redo procedures

Proceedings of International Conference on Women Researchers in Electronics and Computing

This proceeding contains articles on the various research ideas of the academic community and practitioners presented at the international conference, “Women Researchers in Electronics and Computing” (WREC’2021). WREC'21 was organized in online mode by Dr. B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar (Punjab), INDIA during 22 – 24 April 2021. This conference was conceptualized with an objective to encourage and motivate women engineers and scientists to excel in science and technology and to be the role models for young girls to follow in their footsteps. With a view to inspire women engineers, pioneer and successful women achievers in the domains of VLSI design, wireless sensor networks, communication, image/ signal processing, machine learning, and emerging technologies were identified from across the globe and invited to present their work and address the participants in this women oriented conference. Conference Title: International Conference on Women Researchers in Electronics and ComputingConference Acronym: WREC'21Conference Date: 22–24 April 2021Conference Location: Online (Virtual Mode)Conference Organizers: Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, INDI