Poor diet quality is associated with low CD4 count and anemia and predicts mortality among antiretroviral therapy-naive HIV-positive adults in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: We assessed the association between dietary diversity and CD4 count, moderate anemia, and mortality among 876 antiretroviral therapy-naive people living with HIV/AIDS infection (PLHIV) in Uganda. METHODS: Participants were interviewed and followed for an average of 21.6 months. Dietary diversity was measured using the Individual Dietary Diversity Score (IDDS) (range, 0-12) and summarized into an overall measure and disaggregated into nutrient-rich food groups (range, 0-7), cereals, roots, and tubers (range, 0\x{2013} 2); and oils, fats, sugars, and condiments (range, 0\x{2013} 3). We determined the cross-sectional associations between dietary diversity and (1) immunosuppression (CD4 count ≤ 350 cells/μL) and (2) moderate anemia (hemoglobin 350 CD4 cells per microliter, but not those with CD4 count ≤350 cells per microliter, consumption of nutrient-rich food groups was associated with a lower odds of moderate anemia (adjusted odds ratio, 0.57; 95% CI: 0.34 to 0.96). During follow-up, 48 participants (5.6%) died (mortality rate of 3.1 per 100 person-years). IDDS was inversely associated with mortality [adjusted hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% CI: 0.63 to 0.91]. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that diet quality is an important determinant of HIV disease severity and mortality in antiretroviral therapy-naive PLHIV

Effective Ways of Communicating Science to Common People

Due importance is not accorded by scientists to public outreach activities, probably due to their busy research and administrative schedule. However, even if they want to devote their time they cannot do it in a sustained manner because of “(over) specialization”. Creative science communication is hindered by alleged ‘egoist’ feeling that it is an act of “copying” and “over-simplification” making the purists cringe to the core. However, it must be borne in mind that all current science is combinatorial. It derives from a diverse set of disciplines and research that has already been done by generations. It’s a networked knowledge that needs to be effectively communicated to the masses by combining the disparate pieces of inspiration, knowledge, skill and talent that are accumulated over the lifetime. These need to be stitched together or recombined into new creations for easy understanding and consumption of the common people. Science communicators need to cross-pollinate to create and evolve new ideas.Science communication to the common people needs an assortment of techniques that can appeal to the “interested” and “non-interested” participants as well. Both these constituents are an important segment, hence efforts should be made to make science communication a participatory event rather than a unidirectional flow of information. The participatory model should strive at creating an ambience of reflection and rumination, on the ideas that are floating around, so that the information that is being discussed can seep into the psyche of interested as well as un-interested participants. Hence, the effective communication of a scientific idea also rests on the shoulders of the participant, and not just on the communicator. This will induce the communicator to explore new, innovative and effective ways to reach the audience.The new integrated social media platform can be harnessed since it provides an opportunity to effectively engage with a wide spectrum of common people comprising students, teachers, academicians, aspiring scientists and technologists, not just locally but globally. This approach will encourage wide participation and greater returns on time invested. It will also give quantifiable metrics on their impact

A study of cytological pattern of cervical papanicolaou smears in western Rajasthan, India

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers of Indian females. Western Rajasthan differs a lot from rest of India in respect of geographical conditions, environment, culture, population density etc. and it also has relatively lower literacy rate which is one of the risk factor for many diseases. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of cervical cytological pattern in females of western Rajasthan by using conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) smears for the screening of inflammatory, premalignant and malignant lesions of the cervix.Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at tertiary care institute of western Rajasthan for 1.5 year duration, on 1768 females who were screened by Pap smear examination. After staining with conventional Papanicolaou technique, all smears were classified as per Bethesda nomenclature.Results: Out of 1768 smears 1039 (58.7%) were abnormal Pap smears, 445 (25.1%) were normal Pap smears while 284 (16.1%) smears had inadequate sample material to be examined. Out of 1039 abnormal smears, 956 (92.01%) smears reported to have inflammatory/reactive changes whereas 26 (2.50%) had atrophic changes in Pap smear and abnormality in epithelial cell was reported in 57(5.49%) smears.Conclusions: Pap smear examination is an effective screening procedure to detect cervical cytological abnormalities. Routine cytological screening by Pap smear should be offered to all women above 19 years or within 3 years of sexual activity. It is recommended to improve the awareness about the disease amongst females and skills of health care personal about proper preparation of Pap smear

Prevalence and pattern of anemia in the second and third trimester pregnancy in Western Rajasthan

Background: Anemia in pregnancy is related to maternal-fetal morbidity and mortality. In developing countries like India it is important to study prevalence and pattern of anemia in pregnancy especially in the region with higher maternal mortality rate like western Rajasthan. The main objective was to study the prevalence and pattern of anemia in second and third trimester pregnant females in western Rajasthan.Methods: In this cross sectional study females with second and third trimester pregnancy were evaluated for presence of anemia with its morphological type and severity.Results: 17,552 second and third trimester pregnant females were evaluated and prevalence of anemia was found 48.4%. The percentages of mild, moderate and severe anemia were 35.1%, 51.3% and 13.4% respectively. Most common morphological type was microcytic hypochromic anemia (51%) followed by normocytic normochromic anemia (32%), dimorphic anemia (13%) and macrocytic anemia (4%).  Conclusions: There is high prevalence of anemia in pregnant females. This warrants the need of proper prophylaxis and early diagnosis of anemia in pregnancy to minimize the maternal-fetal morbidity and mortality

PRAT: PRofiling Adversarial aTtacks

Intrinsic susceptibility of deep learning to adversarial examples has led to a plethora of attack techniques with a broad common objective of fooling deep models. However, we find slight compositional differences between the algorithms achieving this objective. These differences leave traces that provide important clues for attacker profiling in real-life scenarios. Inspired by this, we introduce a novel problem of PRofiling Adversarial aTtacks (PRAT). Given an adversarial example, the objective of PRAT is to identify the attack used to generate it. Under this perspective, we can systematically group existing attacks into different families, leading to the sub-problem of attack family identification, which we also study. To enable PRAT analysis, we introduce a large Adversarial Identification Dataset (AID), comprising over 180k adversarial samples generated with 13 popular attacks for image specific/agnostic white/black box setups. We use AID to devise a novel framework for the PRAT objective. Our framework utilizes a Transformer based Global-LOcal Feature (GLOF) module to extract an approximate signature of the adversarial attack, which in turn is used for the identification of the attack. Using AID and our framework, we provide multiple interesting benchmark results for the PRAT problem

Models for Self-Balancing of Two Wheeled Vehicles: A Review

In this paper, we have studied the various models, techniques and principles of Self-balancing of two wheeled vehicles. Balancing a two-wheeledvehicle has always been a challenging task.The motion dynamics of a bicycle is very different from other vehicles. Unlike four wheeled or three wheeled vehicles, a bicycle lacks lateral stability when stationary, although bicycles are stable when in motion. Experiments and calculations conclude that a bicycle stays upright when it is steered to maintain its center of mass over its wheels. Either the rider steers to balance the bicycle or the bicycle itself balances above a definite velocity. Factors such as gyroscopic effect, centre of mass, mass distribution contribute in self-stability of bicycle. Numerous projects have been proposed keeping in mind the stability of two wheeled vehicles. Some projects use the concept of flywheels[1] while some use two heavy rotating disks for stability [2]. Most of the projects are based on the concept of inverted pendulum [3][4] and use PID controllers [5] to achieve self-stability. Gyroscopic sensors [4][6][7] are used in some projects which detect the angular tilt followed by a motor to achieve balance

"The group" in integrated HIV and livelihoods programming: opportunity or challenge?

HIV care and treatment providers across sub-Saharan Africa are integrating livelihood interventions to improve food security of their clientele. Many integrated HIV and livelihood programmes (IHLPs) require the formation and use of groups of HIV-infected/affected individuals as the operational target for programme interventions, indeed, virtually without exception the group is the focal point for material and intellectual inputs of IHLPs. We sought to critically examine the group approach to programming among IHLPs in Uganda, and to explore and problematise the assumptions underpinning this model. A case study approach to studying 16 IHLPs was adopted. Each IHLP was treated as a case comprising multiple in-depth interviews conducted with staff along the livelihood programme chain. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with staff from The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), and with members of 71 HIV-infected TASO-registered client households. Our analysis reveals three important considerations in IHLP programming regarding the group-centred approach: (1) Group membership is widely held to confer benefits in the form of psycho-social and motivational support, particularly in empowering individuals to access HIV services and handle stigma. This is contrasted with the problem of stigma inherent in joining groups defined by HIV-status; (2) Membership in groups can bring economic benefits through the pooling of labour and resources. These benefits however need to be set against the costs of membership, when members are required to make contributions in the form of money, goods or labour; (3) Sharing of goods and labour in the context of group membership allow members to access benefits which would otherwise be inaccessible. In exchange, individual choice and control are diminished and problems of resources held in common can arise. While the group model can bring benefits to IHLP efficiency and by extension to food security, and other outcomes, its application needs to be carefully scrutinised at the individual programme level, in terms of whether it is an appropriate approach, and in terms of mitigating potentially adverse effects

Effect micro-nutrients and farm yard manure on soil properties and yield of maize (Zea mays l.) in lower Indo-Gangetic Plain of Uttar Pradesh

The objective of the study to find the suitable treatment combination between the combination of compaction, micronutrients and farmyard manure, which enhanced physical, chemical properties of soil and yield for alluvial soil. The maximum particle density (3.01g/cc), water holding capacity (58.23 %) and pore space (63.40 %) were observed in the treatment T3 (C3I3M3), whereas maximum bulk density (1.09 g/cc) was observed in the treatment T1 (C1I1M1). The maximum EC (0.58dS m-1), Organic carbon (0.66 %), available nitrogen (279.76 kg/ha), phosphorous (19.62 kg P2O5/ha) potash (194.90 kg K2O/ha), zinc (0.65 ppm) and sulfur (14.89 ppm) were found in treatment T3 (C3I3M3). The electrical conductivity gradually increased from control (C0I0M0-0.45) to T3 (C3I3M3-0.58) dSm-1 . The maximum dry weight, test weight and yield were found in the treatment T2 (C2I2M2) viz., 154.43, (230.33 and 50.50 qha-1 respectively for alluvial soil