Ergonomic Assessment and Musculoskeletal Health of the Underpri¬vileged School Children in Pune, India

Background: Musculoskeletal health in schoolchildren is a global health problem. The objective of the current study was to assess ergonomic be¬havior and muscu-loskeletal health in urban poor schoolchildren in Pune, India. Methods: Sixty-five (29 male students) slum dwelling schoolchildren were assessed for their ergonomics using a validated and reliable tool. Results: Average age was 13 years. Out of 65 students, 36 reported pres¬ence of musculoskeletal pain. In addition, 78.5% had bad ergonomics when lifting books. Sitting posture was poor in 67.7%, while 50.8% dem¬onstrated bad posture while using a computer. As far as the female stu¬dents were concerned, it was seen that out of 36 students, 55.6% com¬plained of presence of pain. Out of the 20 students who reported pain, 70% had a score lower than 7.5 on ergonomic score assessment (indicative of bad ergonomics). When the male students were considered, out of 29 students, 65.5% reported presence of pain. Out of the 19 students who reported pain, close to 79% demonstrated bad ergonomics. Conclusion: There is presence of musculoskeletal aches and pains in this under-privileged section of the society, including demonstration of bad er¬gonomics and postures while performing activities in school. Thus, mus¬culoskeletal health prob-lems exist in urban slum schoolchildren. It is im¬portant to identify health problems at an early stage in both boys and girls. Children are the future of the nation and hence, identification of health issues early in life and preventing them from becoming chronic is of utmost importance

New Rotation Periods in the Pleiades: Interpreting Activity Indicators

We present results of photometric monitoring campaigns of G, K and M dwarfs in the Pleiades carried out in 1994, 1995 and 1996. We have determined rotation periods for 18 stars in this cluster. In this paper, we examine the validity of using observables such as X-ray activity and amplitude of photometric variations as indicators of angular momentum loss. We report the discovery of cool, slow rotators with high amplitudes of variation. This contradicts previous conclusions about the use of amplitudes as an alternate diagnostic of the saturation of angular momentum loss. We show that the X-ray data can be used as observational indicators of mass-dependent saturation in the angular momentum loss proposed on theoretical grounds

Thermomagnetic convection in stratified ferrofluids permeated with dusty particles through a porous medium

In the present note, the stability problem of an incompressible dusty stratified ferromagnetic fluid is investigated through a porous medium when the fluid layer is subjected to vertical magnetic field intensity. The governing nonlinear equations are linearized using perturbation technique and the cases of exponentially varying stratifications for various physical parameters are discussed. The system is found to be stable for stable stratification in both the absence and presence of magnetic field. For unstable stratification, the system has both stabilizing and destabilizing effects in the presence of magnetic field under certain conditions, whereas in the absence of magnetic field, the system has only destabilizing effect. The variations in the growth rate with respect to kinematic viscosity, medium porosity, medium permeability, square of Alfvén velocity and suspended particle parameter are also shown analytically

Electrophoretic deposition of hydroxy-apatite on Ti6Al4V

In the present study, electrophoretic deposition of sintered and non sintered hydroxyapatite on Ti6Al4V has been carried out at a constant voltage of 30V for 5, 10 and 15 minute duration at different pH values of 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 respectively for improving the property of coated layer. An uniform coating of hydroxyapatite (HAp) will results in a better cellular activity. As-received Ti-6Al-4V samples are polished by following the standard metallographic technique to prepare a scratch free surface. After coating under different processing conditions the surface are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for morphological studies and x-ray diffraction technique for phase analysis. SEM images show that at lower pH value 1.5 and constant voltage 30V crack were not present at coating surface. Comparison between sintered (900˚ for 2 hrs) and non-sintered hydroxyapatite deposition and phase characterization analysis was done by XRD analysis. XRD analysis indicated that before sintering, some other compounds were present in HAp powder but after sintering they were not oxidized. The presence of chemical elements on the deposited surface was assessed by EDS. (Keywords: Ti6Al4V, Electrophoretic deposition, Hydroxyapatite, XRD, SEM, EDS

Gender Gating? Addressing Congestion to Improve Women\u27s Welfare on Online Matching Platforms

The problem of worsening gender skew is particularly damaging in the context of matching platforms since it affects the welfare and user experience of women participants. In this paper, we look at how a platform-level intervention could reduce the congestion for women and thus improve their overall user experience on the platform. We specifically look at a form of gender gating intervention in a leading matrimonial platform within one of their sub-domains. The intervention restricts the profile visibility of women users based on age, education, income, and marital status related to social norms. Our analysis shows that the platform-level intervention had the desired effect – women in the treatment group received fewer unwanted requests for contacts, experienced more matches, and initiated more contacts themselves, representing a better user experience. Our work extends the platform literature by studying how platform owners can improve Women\u27s welfare on matching platforms through market design

Skin Cancer Detection and Classification

Skin cancer is a term given to the uncontrolled growth of strange skin cells. It occurs whenever unrepaired DNA damages to skin cells trigger mutations, or any other genetic defects, that lead the skin cells to multiply readily and form malignant tumors. Image processing is a commonly used method for skin cancer detection from the appearance of the affected area on the skin. The input to the system is that the skin lesion image so by applying novel image process techniques, it analyses it to conclude about the presence of skin cancer. The Lesion Image analysis tools checks for the various Melanoma parameters Like Asymmetry, Border, Colour, Diameter, (ABCD rule), etc. by texture, size and form analysis for image segmentation and have stages. The extracted feature parameters are accustomed classify the image as traditional skin and malignant melanoma cancerlesion. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is one of the important branches of Artificial Intelligence, which has been accepted as a brand-new technology in computer science for image processing. Neural Networks is currently the area of interest in medicine, particularly in the fields of radiology, urology, cardiology, oncology, etc. Neural Network plays a vital role in an exceedingly call network. It has been used to analyze Melanoma parameters Like Asymmetry, Border, Colour, Diameter, etc. which are calculated using MATLAB from skin cancer images intending to developing diagnostic algorithms that might improve triage practices in the emergency department. Using the ABCD rules for melanoma skin cancer, we use ANN in the classification stage. Initially, we train the network with known target values. The network is well trained with 96.9% accuracy, and then the unknown values are tested for the cancer classification. This classification method proves to be more efficient for skin cancer classification

Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations VI: Photometric and Spectroscopic Calibration for the Integral Field Spectrograph

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a new facility instrument for the Gemini Observatory designed to provide direct detection and characterization of planets and debris disks around stars in the solar neighborhood. In addition to its extreme adaptive optics and corona graphic systems which give access to high angular resolution and high-contrast imaging capabilities, GPI contains an integral field spectrograph providing low resolution spectroscopy across five bands between 0.95 and 2.5 $\mu$m. This paper describes the sequence of processing steps required for the spectro-photometric calibration of GPI science data, and the necessary calibration files. Based on calibration observations of the white dwarf HD 8049B we estimate that the systematic error in spectra extracted from GPI observations is less than 5%. The flux ratio of the occulted star and fiducial satellite spots within coronagraphic GPI observations, required to estimate the magnitude difference between a target and any resolved companions, was measured in the $H$-band to be $\Delta m = 9.23\pm0.06$ in laboratory measurements and $\Delta m = 9.39\pm 0.11$ using on-sky observations. Laboratory measurements for the $Y$, $J$, $K1$ and $K2$ filters are also presented. The total throughput of GPI, Gemini South and the atmosphere of the Earth was also measured in each photometric passband, with a typical throughput in $H$-band of 18% in the non-coronagraphic mode, with some variation observed over the six-month period for which observations were available. We also report ongoing development and improvement of the data cube extraction algorithm.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures. Proceedings of the SPIE, 9147-30