Risk behaviours associated with urethritis and genital ulcer disease in prison inmates, Sindh, Pakistan

We evaluated the epidemiological differences with respect to demographics, drug use and sexual behaviours associated with lifetime risk of urethritis, genital ulcer disease (GUD) and urethritis and GUD together among 3395 male prisoners in Sindh. Factors associated with urethritis and GUD alone were sex with multiple females, sex with men, and ethnicity. Additional factors associated with urethritis alone were sex with prostitutes, sex with partners having multiple partners and sex with partners believed to be injecting drugs. Behaviours associated with lifetime risk for urethritis and GUD together were sex with multiple females, sex with prostitutes, sex with men, sex with partners believed to be injecting drugs and ethnicity. These relationships were consistently stronger compared to urethritis or GUD alone

Proficiency testing of fingerprint examiners with Bayesian Item Response Theory

In recent years, the forensic community has pushed to increase the scientific basis of forensic evidence, which has included proficiency testing for fingerprint analysts. We used proficiency testing data collected by Collaborative Testing Services in which 431 fingerprint analysts were asked to identify the source of latent prints. The data were analysed using a Rasch model with a Bayesian estimation approach. Although these data provide valuable information about the relative proficiency of the examiners and the relative difficulty of the questions, it does not necessarily extrapolate onto general performance of examiners or difficulty in casework, which we show through sensitivity analysis and simulation. We show that a Bayesian Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis provides a deeper understanding of analysts’ proficiency and question difficulty than other forms of analysis. A large-scale adoption of IRT in this area would provide both more precise estimates of proficiency and quantitative evidence for the relative difficulty of different questions

Multivariate analysis of risk factors associated with genital ulcer disease among incarcerated males in Sindh

Objective: To evaluate the potential risk behaviors associated with the lifetime risk of self reported genital ulcer disease (GUD) among prison inmates.SETTING: Prison inmates from 14 prisons of Sindh Province.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 3395 prison inmates during July to December, 1994. A questionnaire was used to assess the lifetime risk of self-reported GUD (whether or not the subject was ever affected with GUD up to present age) and to investigate demographic markers and risk behaviors for their possible association with lifetime risk of GUD using logistic regression analysis.Results: The reported lifetime risk of GUD in the study sample was 11.4% (386/3395). In final multivariate logistic regression model the sexual behaviors which were independently associated with GUD were having sexual intercourse with female (adjusted OR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.3-2.3, P = 0.0002), sexual intercourse with a prostitute (adjusted OR = 1.5; 95% CI: 1.2-2.0, P = 0.0008), sexual intercourse with man (adjusted OR = 2.2; 95% CI: 1.7-2.7, P = \u3c 0.001) and sexual intercourse with man during current incarceration (adjusted OR = 1.9; 95% CI: 1.2-2.9, P = 0.0071).CONCLUSION: Health education needs to re-enforce monogamous relationship for high risk groups such as in our study. Although infrequent condom use was not a risk factor for GUD in this study, yet based on the results of previous studies, promotion of condom use should be the component of health education program

Effectiveness of health education in promoting the use of iodized salt in Lotkoh, tehsil Chitral, Pakistan

Introduction: We evaluated the effect of health education on the use of iodized salt in a remote region.Methods: We randomly selected 31 villages in teh Lotkoh tehsil of district Chitral in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. We then randomly selected 7 households from each village and inteviewed the eldest women of the family. We also tested samples of salt for iodine concentration at the user\u27s level.Results: Eighty-five percent of families (184/217) used iodized salt exclusively. Among the samples population, the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) informed 67% about the importance of iodized salt. Shopkeepers and neighbors informed 25%. People informed by AKHS were more likely to know the volatile nature of iodine (76% vs 55%, p \u3c 0.001) and the advantages of iodized salt (91% vs. 75%, p = 0.001) than persons informed by other sources. People who could name any single advantage of iodized salt were more likely to use iodized salt (97%) compared to those who could not name any advantages (62%) (p \u3c 0.001) Iodine concentration in 78% (141/183) samples was acceptable (\u3e or = 15 ppm). One specific brand of salt consistently had sufficient iodine concentration (91%) compared to all others (47%) (p \u3c 0.001).CONCLUSION: Health education has been effective in promoting the use of iodized salt in these isolated rural communities. A joint effort by the government, local NGOs and the community can substitute the role of mass media in such areas. Regular evaluation of iodized salt brands should be considered

Tight Bounds for MIS in Multichannel Radio Networks

Daum et al. [PODC'13] presented an algorithm that computes a maximal independent set (MIS) within $O(\log^2 n/F+\log n \mathrm{polyloglog} n)$ rounds in an $n$-node multichannel radio network with $F$ communication channels. The paper uses a multichannel variant of the standard graph-based radio network model without collision detection and it assumes that the network graph is a polynomially bounded independence graph (BIG), a natural combinatorial generalization of well-known geographic families. The upper bound of that paper is known to be optimal up to a polyloglog factor. In this paper, we adapt algorithm and analysis to improve the result in two ways. Mainly, we get rid of the polyloglog factor in the runtime and we thus obtain an asymptotically optimal multichannel radio network MIS algorithm. In addition, our new analysis allows to generalize the class of graphs from those with polynomially bounded local independence to graphs where the local independence is bounded by an arbitrary function of the neighborhood radius.Comment: 37 pages, to be published in DISC 201

Risk behaviours associated with urethritis in prison inmates, Sindh

Objective: To identify sexual risk behaviours associated with lifetime risk of urethritis in prison inmates.Design: A cross-sectional study using a pre-designed questionnaire.SETTING: Fourteen prisons throughout the Sindh Province, Pakistan.SUBJECTS: Three thousand three hundred ninety-five prison inmates incarcerated during July, 1994.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Lifetime risk of urethritis occurrence (whether or not the subject was ever affected with urethritis up to his present age)Results: Lifetime risk of urethritis occurrence in the study population was 20.8% (706/3395). The final multivariate logistic regression model indicated that risk behaviours associated with lifetime risk of urethritis in this population were \u27sexual intercourse with a female\u27 (adjusted OR = 2.18; 95% CI 1.60, 2.95), \u27multiple female sexual partners\u27 (adjusted OR = 1.67; 95% CI 1.28, 2.18) and \u27sexual intercourse with man\u27 (adjusted OR = 2.75; 95% CI 2.29, 3.31).CONCLUSION: The prevalence of urethritis in this population was very high. High prevalence of various risky sexual behaviours among inmates indicates, their unawareness as to what precautions they might take to avoid risk of acquiring STDs including HIV. The study subjects meet the characteristics of a core group of STDs transmitters and provides short window of opportunity for STD/HIV control programs to intervene, while they are in detention to reduce the risk not only for this group but also for general population

Prevalence of plasmodium slide positivity among the children treated for malaria, Jhangara, Sindh

Objective: The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of malaria amongst the children with fever or history of fever.SETTING: Rural Health Centre (RHC), Jhangara, a town near the Manchhar Lake in Taluka Sehwan, District Dadu, Sindh.SUBJECTS: Four hundred and thirty eight children of 6 months to 10 years of age, who attended above described RHC during August through October 1997.Methods: A Sindhi-translated standard questionnaire was used to record symptoms and duration of child\u27s illness. Each child was physically examined, had their axillary temperature measured; and blood samples were collected from which Giemsa stained thick and thin blood films were examined for presence of Plasmodium parasites.Results: The median age of the studied children was 24 months and 57% (250/438) were boys. Fifty three percent (231) of the study subjects were from Jhangara Town, 40% (177) and 7% (30) came from other villages and villages near to the Manchhar Lake respectively. The prevalence of Plasmodium slide positivity was 5.9% (26/438). Among Plasmodium slide positive children, 65% (17/26) were positive for P. falciparum and 35% (9/26) for P. vivax. Among the P. falciparum positive children, 88% (15/26) had scanty (MP, 1-10/100 fields) and 12% (2/26) had moderate density (MP, 10-100/100 fields) of infection. Seventeen percent (6/30) of the children from villages close to Manchhar Lake were Plasmodium slide positive compared to 7% (17/53) and 3% (5/177) from Jhangara town and other villages respectively. Cough, diarrhea, abdominal distention and vomiting were the commonly reported symptoms among the children of all ages at the time of interview. Guardians reported fever as part of the illness in all children, although during physical examination only 128 (29%) had axillary temperature \u3e or = 37.5 degrees C. Pallor as an indicator for anemia, rash and prickly heat were the major recorded observations.CONCLUSION: The Prevalence of Plasmodium positivity was higher in children who attended from villages close to Manchhar lake, therefore especial measure needs to be considered for this area. In addition, the health care workers in rural Sindh need to adopt appropriate guidelines to differentiate the clinical malarial patients from patients with other potential infectious diseases, which may need other treatment

Simulating Auxiliary Inputs, Revisited

For any pair $(X,Z)$ of correlated random variables we can think of $Z$ as a randomized function of $X$. Provided that $Z$ is short, one can make this function computationally efficient by allowing it to be only approximately correct. In folklore this problem is known as \emph{simulating auxiliary inputs}. This idea of simulating auxiliary information turns out to be a powerful tool in computer science, finding applications in complexity theory, cryptography, pseudorandomness and zero-knowledge. In this paper we revisit this problem, achieving the following results: \begin{enumerate}[(a)] We discuss and compare efficiency of known results, finding the flaw in the best known bound claimed in the TCC'14 paper "How to Fake Auxiliary Inputs". We present a novel boosting algorithm for constructing the simulator. Our technique essentially fixes the flaw. This boosting proof is of independent interest, as it shows how to handle "negative mass" issues when constructing probability measures in descent algorithms. Our bounds are much better than bounds known so far. To make the simulator $(s,\epsilon)$-indistinguishable we need the complexity $O\left(s\cdot 2^{5\ell}\epsilon^{-2}\right)$ in time/circuit size, which is better by a factor $\epsilon^{-2}$ compared to previous bounds. In particular, with our technique we (finally) get meaningful provable security for the EUROCRYPT'09 leakage-resilient stream cipher instantiated with a standard 256-bit block cipher, like $\mathsf{AES256}$.Comment: Some typos present in the previous version have been correcte