Using indirect methods to understand the impact of forced migration on long-term under-five mortality.

Despite the large numbers of displaced persons and the often-lengthy periods of displacement, little is known about the impact of forced migration on long-term under-five mortality. This paper looks at the Brass Method (and adaptations of this method) and the Preceding Birth Technique in combination with a classification of women by their migration and reproductive histories, in order to study the impact of forced migration on under-five mortality. Data came from the Demography of Forced Migration Project, a study on mortality, fertility and violence in the refugee and host populations of Arua District, Uganda and Yei River District, Sudan. Results indicate that women who did not migrate in a situation of conflict and women who repatriated before the age of 15, had children with the highest under-five mortality rates compared with women who were currently refugees and women who repatriated after the age of 15

Building leadership capacity and future leaders in operational research in low-income countries: why and how?

Very limited operational research (OR) emerges from programme settings in low-income countries where the greatest burden of disease lies. The price paid for this void includes a lack of understanding of how health systems are actually functioning, not knowing what works and what does not, and an inability to propose adapted and innovative solutions to programme problems. We use the National Tuberculosis Control Programme as an example to advocate for strong programme-level leadership to steer OR and build viable relationships between programme managers, researchers and policy makers. We highlight the need to create a stimulating environment for conducting OR and identify some of the main practical challenges and enabling factors at programme level. We focus on the important role of an OR focal point within programmes and practical approaches to training that can deliver timely and quantifiable outputs. Finally, we emphasise the need to measure successful OR leadership development at programme level and we propose parameters by which this can be assessed. This paper 1) provides reasons why programmes should take the lead in coordinating and directing OR, 2) identifies the practical challenges and enabling factors for implementing, managing and sustaining OR and 3) proposes parameters for measuring successful leadership capacity development in OR

Automated Identification of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Survey

Diabetes strikes when the pancreas stops to produce sufficient insulin, gradually disturbing the retina of the human eye, leading to diabetic retinopathy. The blood vessels in the retina become changed and have abnormality. Exudates are concealed, micro-aneurysms and haemorrhages occur in the retina of eye, which intern leads to blindness. The presence of these structures signifies the harshness of the disease. A systematized Diabetic Retinopathy screening system will enable the detection of lesions accurately, consequently facilitating the ophthalmologists. Micro-aneurysms are the initial clinical signs of diabetic retinopathy. Timely identification of diabetic retinopathy plays a major role in the success of managing the disease. The main task is to extract exudates, which are similar in color property and size of the optic disk; afterwards micro-aneurysms are alike in color and closeness with blood vessels. The primary objective of this review is to survey the methods, techniques potential benefits and limitations of automated detection of micro-aneurysm in order to better manage translation into clinical practice, based on extensive experience with systems used by opthalmologists treating diabetic retinopathy

An Approach to the Detection of Retinoblastoma based on Apriori Algorithm

Retinoblastoma is a rare kind of cancer, typically designated as leukocoria (white-eye pupillary reflex) that rapidly develops from the immature cells of a retina, the light-detecting tissue of the eye. It is the most common malignant cancer of the eye in young children. Early detection of leukocoria can improve the overall treatment duration.There is intensification in interest for setting up medical system that can monitor a large number of people for sight threatening diseases, likely Retinoblastoma and Diabetic Retinopathy.Developed an image processing application for the discovery of retinoblastoma by exploiting graph theory based apriori algorithm as a novel approach and different image processing techniques.The application will review the image with different phases and identifies region of interest of the threatened area in the retina.The software is implemented using MATLAB and developed a graphical user interface for smooth proceedings during identification stages of the disease

Distribution and enrichment of 210Po in the environment of Kaiga in South India

Several soil and vegetation samples from the environment of Kaiga nuclear power plant site in the south western region of India were analysed for 210Po. The vertical profile, particle-size distribution, seasonal variation and the dry deposition rate of 210Po were measured employing the chemical method and α - counting technique. 210Po activity in soil varies from 17.1 to 228.2 Bq kg-1 with a mean value of 83.3 Bq kg-1. The activity of 210Po is higher in the surface soil (0-5 cm) and decreases as depth increases to 20 cm and remains nearly constant thereafter. The activity concentration is almost uniform in the grain sizes of 350-177 μm and below 177 μm. Pterobryopsis tumida (Hook.) Dix, a plant of the moss family, shows a very high level of 210Po activity - 2724 ± 13 Bq kg-1. Seasonal variation studies show elevated levels of 210Po in vegetation during winter. The annual dry deposition rate of 210Po was 53.4 Bq m-2 yr-1. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd

Dietary intake of Po-210 and Pb-210 in the environment of Goa of south-west coast of India

This paper deals with the distribution and activity intake of Po-210 and Pb-210 in food, diet, and potable water samples of the Goa region and the estimated committed effective dose due to ingestion of these radionuclides. The activity concentrations of Po-210 and Pb-210 were determined in about 30 food and diet samples from different places of Goa in order to know the distribution and intake of these radionuclides. The activity concentration of Po-210 in fish and prawn samples were significantly higher than concentrations found in vegetable and rice samples. Higher concentrations of Po-210 and Ph-210 were observed in leafy vegetables than in non-leafy vegetables. Among the diet samples the activity concentrations of Po-210 and Ph-210 in non-vegetarian meal samples were relatively higher than in vegetarian meal and breakfast samples. The committed effective dose due to annual intake of Po-210 was found to be 94.6 mu Sv, 49.1 mu Sv, 10.5 mu Sv, and 2.2 mu Sv and that of Pb-210 found to be 81.6 mu Sv, 59.9 mu Sv, 14.6 mu Sv, and 2.0 mu Sv for the ingestion of non-vegetarian meal, vegetarian meal, breakfast, and potable water, respectively

Cs-137 concentration in the environment of Kaiga of south west coast of India

This paper presents the results of Cs-137 activity in soil and vegetation obtained through a carefully planned pre-operational survey for the establishment of baseline data on background radiation level and distribution of radionuclides in the environment of Kaiga, in the south west coast of India, where two nuclear power reactors of 235 MWe each are under construction, The vertical profile in soil and the seasonal variation in the activity have been studied. Nine commonly available vegetation species of Kaiga region were analyzed for their Cs-137 activity, and the soil-to-plant transfer coefficients were evaluated. Measurements were made by gamma spectrometry method employing a 90 cc HpGe detector and a 3 x 3-inch well type NaI(TI) detector. Results show significant levels of Cs-137 activity in soil samples - ranging from below detection limit (BDL) to 65.4 Bq kg(-1). The mean value of activity observed in 0-5 cm soil profiles of Kaiga environs is significantly higher when compared to the reported values for other environs of India, Depth profile studies show that the Cs-137 activity decreases with the increasing soil depth, and it is below detection limit for depths more than 25 cm, The mean value of effective dose commitment due to the presence of Cs-137 in soil was 167.2 mu Sv. Vegetation samples of the region show elevated Levels of Cs-137 concentration. Epiphytic plants Cymbidium aloifolium (Lo.) Swartz, and Petrobryopsis tumida (Hook,) I)ix. have been identified as bio-indicators to monitor the fallout of this radionuclide in the environment of Kaiga, Seasonal variation studies indicate higher fallout of this radionuclide along with rain

Transfer Learning based Automated Essay Summarization

The human evaluation of essays has become a very time-consuming process as the number of schools and universities has grown. The available software entities are unable to assess the sentiment associated with essays. Thus, we propose a model using Natural Language Processing to assess the essay based on both grammar and sentiment associated with the essay by using linear regression and ULMFiT (Universal Language Model Fine-tuning for Text Classification) models.  Evaluation of essay is done in two parts. Part one is on essay grading with respect to grammar with maximum 12 and minimum 0 grade points and in part two score of 0/1 for sentiment analysis with 0 being negative and 1 being positive. The model can be used to score the essay and discard any essay with a score less than a specified value or specified sentiment score

Ameliorating Effect Of Quercetin On Ethanol-Induced Liver Injury Via Targeting RISC Machinery

Background: Over the past few decades, increased alcohol consumption has had deleterious effects on human health. Alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD) is becoming a major global challenge, as the currently approved drugs for AFLDs are subject to several side effects. This has broadened the scope of the use of natural compounds as therapeutics. Recent advances in nutraceuticals as therapeutics have shed light on flavonoids such as Quercetin. It is a natural antioxidant of multiple dietary origins and has been extensively studied for its beneficial role as an anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer agent. Objective: Based on this framework, in the proposed study, we investigated the therapeutic role of Quercetin in Ethanol-induced liver damage using the Swiss Albino mice model and the hepatic cell line HepG2. Methodology: WST-1 assay was performed to access the effect of Quercetin on cell proliferation. The impact of Ethanol on the body and liver weights of mice was measured, and liver injury was determined by H&E staining and TMS. The mRNA expression levels of inflammatory genes (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β) and SND1, a significant unit of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), were analyzed. The liver enzyme levels were also measured. Results: Our experimental results showed that HepG2 cells treated with ethanol had a lower proliferation rate, which was later mitigated by treatment with quercetin. In the mice model, a considerable reduction in body weight was detected after ethanol treatment. Conversely, there was a significant elevation in liver weight and enzyme activity. All of these effects were ameliorated by Quercetin treatment. Immunohistochemistry data revealed an improvement in the inflammation and fibrosis characteristics in liver tissues of the Quercetin-treated group. Decreased expression of inflammatory markers and SND1 levels were also observed in the Quercetin-treated group. Conclusion: Based on our results it may be concluded that Quercetin demonstrated hepatoprotective activity in both ethanol-treated HepG2 cell line and ethanol-induced liver injury in mice model. Here, we elucidated a novel and possible therapeutic role of Quercetin in Alcohol-Related Liver Disease (ARLD) by targeting the RISC machinery

Elevated serum Homocysteine levels a possible non-invasive diagnostic biomarker in patients with Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Lack of independent biomarkers is very much evident in NAFLD. Early detection of NAFLD is difficult due to the absence of specific diagnostic and prognostic markers and clinical symptoms. We retrospectively collected the information of patients hospitalised with NAFLD diagnosis and metabolic syndrome during 2019-2020 using the tertiary care hospital inpatient sample database and evaluated the changes in their serum homocysteine levels. We found that 59.063% of NAFLD in the male population and 41.667% of NAFLD in the female population had increased serum homocysteine. This shows that elevated serum homocysteine can act as a potential biomarker for NAFLD