The costs of HIV prevention for different target populations in Mumbai, Thane and Bangalore.

BACKGROUND: Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative, delivers HIV prevention services to high-risk populations at scale. Although the broad costs of such HIV interventions are known, to-date there has been little data available on the comparative costs of reaching different target groups, including female sex workers (FSWs), replace with 'high risk men who have sex with men (HR-MSM) and trans-genders. METHODS: Costs are estimated for the first three years of Avahan scale up differentiated by typology of female sex workers (brothel, street, home, lodge based, bar based), HR-MSM and transgenders in urban districts in India: Mumbai and Thane in Maharashtra and Bangalore in Karnataka. Financial and economic costs were collected prospectively from a provider perspective. Outputs were measured using data collected by the Avahan programme. Costs are presented in US$2008. RESULTS: Costs were found to vary substantially by target group. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with transgender populations had a higher mean cost (US$116) per person reached compared to those dealing primarily with FSWs (US $75-96) and MSWs (US$90) by the end of year three of the programme in Mumbai. The mean cost of delivering the intervention to HR-MSMs (US $42) was higher than delivering it to FSWs (US$37) in Bangalore. The package of services delivered to each target group was similar, and our results suggest that cost variation is related to the target population size, the intensity of the programme (in terms of number of contacts made per year) and a number of specific issues related to each target group. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our data policy makers and program managers need to consider the ease of accessing high risk population when planning and budgeting for HIV prevention services for these populations and avoid funding programmes on the basis of target population size alone

Automatic Raaga Identification System For Carnatic Music Using Hidden Markov Model

As for as the Human Computer Interactions (HCI) is concerned, there is broad range of applications in the area of research in respective of Automatic Melakarta Raaga Identification in music. The pattern of identification is the main object for which, the basic mathematical tool is utilized. On verification, it is observed that no model is proved consistently and effectively to be predicted in its classification. This paper is, therefore, introduces a procedure for Raaga Identification with the help of Hidden Markov Models (HMM) which is rather an appropriate approach in identifying Melakarta Raagas. This proposed approach is based on the standard speech recognition technology by using Hidden continuous Markov Model. Data is collected from the existing data base for training and testing of the method with due design process relating to Melakarta Raagas. Similarly, to solve the problem of automatic identification of raagas, a suitable approach from the existing database is presented. The system, particularly, this model is based on a Hidden Markov Model enhanced with Pakad string matching algorithm. The entire system is built on top of an automatic note transcriptor. At the end, detailed elucidations of the experiments are given. It clearly indicates the effectiveness and applicability of this method with its intrinsic value and significance

Retroperitoneal Primary Yolk Sac Tumour in Adult Male

Yolk sac tumour also called as endodermal sinus tumour is a malignant germ cell tumour. Extra gonadal germ cell tumours are very rare. The most common extra gonadal site is mediastinum. Retroperitoneum is the second most common site of occurence. We report a case of a primary extragonadal yolk sac tumour in an adult male who presented with abdominal pain, Imaging showed a very large retroperitoneal mass. Histopathology of the biopsied specimen showed it as a Yolksac tumour

A rare case of indirect inguinal hernia with ovary as content at a hospital of Visakhapatnam

A hernia is the protrusion of the small intestines or omentum or other organs through a defect in the abdominal wall. Inguinal herniain females is very rare and occurs in <5% of women. Here, we report the case of a 25-year-old female who presented with swellingin the left groin associated with dragging pain in the left iliac fossa. She was investigated and diagnosed as a left indirect inguinalhernia. Hernioplasty was planned and intraoperatively ovary along with fimbria was identified as content. An inguinal ovary mayoccur if the gubernaculum fails to attach to the uterus in fetal life or if the canal of Nuck remains open after birth

AN LC- MS/MS METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF OMEPRAZOLE ON PROTON PUMP INHIBITOR IN HUMAN PLASMA

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatographic method coupled with tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) was developed for the quantification of omeprazole in human plasma. Lansoprazole was used as internal standard with plasma samples, extracted using 10mM ammonium acetate. A centrifuged upper layer was then evaporated and reconstituted with Acetonitrile: mobile phase buffer 70:30%v/v. The reconstructed samples were injected into a C18 column purospher star 5µ. The mobile phase was composed of ACN: mobile phase buffer (5mm ammonium bicarbonate buffer) in the ratio of 70:30%v/v with flow rate 1.0mL/min. The mass spectrometer was operated using positive ion mode and turbo electro spray ionisation. Nitrogen was used as the nebulizer, curtain, collision and auxiliary gases. Using MS/MS with multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode, omeprazole was detected without severe interferences from plasma matrix. Detection of omeprazole in human plasma was accurate and precision. This method has been successfully applied to the study of omeprazole in human specimensKeywords: Proton pump inhibitor, omeprazole, lansoprazole, LC-MS/MS, liquid liquid  extractio

Applying Machine Learning Techniques To Intermediate-Length Cascade Decays

In the collider phenomenology of extensions of the Standard Model with partner particles, cascade decays occur generically, and they can be challenging to discover when the spectrum of new particles is compressed and the signal cross section is low. Achieving discovery-level significance and measuring the properties of the new particles appearing as intermediate states in the cascade decays is a longstanding problem, with analysis techniques for some decay topologies already optimized. We focus our attention on a benchmark decay topology with four final state particles where there is room for improvement, and where multidimensional analysis techniques have been shown to be effective in the past. Using machine learning techniques, we identify the optimal kinematic observables for discovery, spin determination and mass measurement. In agreement with past work, we confirm that the kinematic observable $\Delta_4$ is highly effective. We quantify the achievable accuracy for spin determination and for the precision for mass measurements as a function of the signal size.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figure

Reasons for Seeking HIV-test: Evidence from a Private Hospital in Rural Andhra Pradesh, India

This study sought to describe the development of HIV counselling and testing services in a rural private hospital and to explore the factors associated with reasons for seeking HIV testing and sexual behaviours among adults seeking testing in the rural hospital. Data for this study were drawn from a voluntary counselling and testing clinic in a private hospital in rural Andhra Pradesh state in southern India. In total, 5,601 rural residents sought HIV counselling and testing and took part in a behavioural risk-assessment survey during October 2003–June 2005. The prevalence of HIV was 1.1%. Among the two reported reasons for test-seeking—based on past sexual behaviour and based on being sick at the time of testing—men, individuals reporting risk behaviours, such as those having multiple pre- and postmarital sexual partners, individuals whose recent partner was a sex worker, and those who reported using alcohol before sex, were more likely to seek testing based on their past sexual behaviour. Men also were more likely to seek testing because they were sick. The findings from this large sample in rural India suggest that providing HIV-prevention and care services as part of an ongoing system of healthcare-delivery may benefit rural residents who otherwise may not have access to these services. The implications of involving the private sector in HIV-related service-delivery and in conducting research in rural areas are discussed. It is argued that services that are gaining prominence in urban areas, such as addressing male heterosexual behaviours and assessing the role of alcohol-use, are equally relevant areas of intervention in rural India

Comparison of path following in ships using modern and traditional controllers

Vessel navigation is difficult in restricted waterways and in the presence of static and dynamic obstacles. This difficulty can be attributed to the high-level decisions taken by humans during these maneuvers, which is evident from the fact that 85% of the reported marine accidents are traced back to human errors. Artificial intelligence-based methods offer us a way to eliminate human intervention in vessel navigation. Newer methods like Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) can optimize multiple objectives like path following and collision avoidance at the same time while being computationally cheaper to implement in comparison to traditional approaches. Before addressing the challenge of collision avoidance along with path following, the performance of DRL-based controllers on the path following task alone must be established. Therefore, this study trains a DRL agent using Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm and tests it against a traditional PD controller guided by an Integral Line of Sight (ILOS) guidance system. The Krisco Container Ship (KCS) is chosen to test the different controllers. The ship dynamics are mathematically simulated using the Maneuvering Modelling Group (MMG) model developed by the Japanese. The simulation environment is used to train the deep reinforcement learning-based controller and is also used to tune the gains of the traditional PD controller. The effectiveness of the controllers in the presence of wind is also investigated.Comment: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference in Ocean Engineering (ICOE2023

AUTHENTIC-TIME SEMANTIC EXPLORATION USING INEXACT METHOD FOR LARGE-SCALE STORAGE SYSTEMS

Content-based analysis tools not only have high complexity and costs, but they also neglect effective management with massive file levels. An advanced RTS operation is performed, such as a system moderator that can work on existing systems, such as the file system. This document proposes a plan in almost real time, known as RTS, limited to analysis of effective and affordable data within the cloud. RTS extracts the main property information of the type given by multidimensional attributes, such as the generator of these details in a multidimensional vector. The idea of ​​replacing the truth can be greatly reduced by the number of images that are transferred through a discussion about the benefit of RTS from Safe’s operations on semantic aggregation. The spread can get data from the page's cache. We use the real-world mode of use that is determined to lose them in an atmosphere occupied at the right time by analyzing 60 million images using RTS. RTS is made to exploit the property of linking information through the realization of fragmentation

Cross-Genome Comparisons of Newly Identified Domains in Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Domain Architectures with Other Mycoplasma species

Accurate functional annotation of protein sequences is hampered by important factors such as the failure of sequence search methods to identify relationships and the inherent diversity in function of proteins related at low sequence similarities. Earlier, we had employed intermediate sequence search approach to establish new domain relationships in the unassigned regions of gene products at the whole genome level by taking Mycoplasma gallisepticum as a specific example and established new domain relationships. In this paper, we report a detailed comparison of the conservation status of the domain and domain architectures of the gene products that bear our newly predicted domains amongst 14 other Mycoplasma genomes and reported the probable implications for the organisms. Some of the domain associations, observed in Mycoplasma that afflict humans and other non-human primates, are involved in regulation of solute transport and DNA binding suggesting specific modes of host-pathogen interactions