Impact of targeted interventions on heterosexual transmission of HIV in India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Targeted interventions (TIs) have been a major strategy for HIV prevention in India. We evaluated the impact of TIs on HIV prevalence in high HIV prevalence southern states (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quasi-experimental approach was used to retrospectively compare changes in HIV prevalence according to the intensity of targeted intervention implementation. Condom gap (number of condoms required minus condoms supplied by TIs) was used as an indicator of TI intensity. Annual average number of commercial sex acts per female sex worker (FSW) reported in Behavioral Surveillance Survey was multiplied by the estimated number of FSWs in each district to calculate annual requirement of condoms in the district. Data of condoms supplied by TIs from 1995 to 2008 was obtained from program records. Districts in each state were ranked into quartiles based on the TI intensity. Primary data of HIV Sentinel Surveillance was analyzed to calculate HIV prevalence reductions in each successive year taking 2001 as reference year according to the quartiles of TI intensity districts using generalized linear model with logit link and binomial distribution after adjusting for age, education, and place of residence (urban or rural).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the high HIV prevalence southern states, the number of TI projects for FSWs increased from 5 to 310 between 1995 and 2008. In high TI intensity quartile districts (n = 30), 186 condoms per FSW/year were distributed through TIs as compared to 45 condoms/FSW/year in the low TI intensity districts (n = 29). Behavioral surveillance indicated significant rise in condom use from 2001 to 2009. Among FSWs consistent condom use with last paying clients increased from 58.6% to 83.7% (p < 0.001), and among men of reproductive age, the condom use during sex with non-regular partner increased from 51.7% to 68.6% (p < 0.001). A significant decline in HIV and syphilis prevalence has occurred in high prevalence southern states among FSWs and young antenatal women. Among young (15-24 years) antenatal clinic attendees significant decline was observed in HIV prevalence from 2001 to 2008 (OR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.28-0.62) in high TI intensity districts whereas in low TI intensity districts the change was not significant (OR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.67-1.5).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Targeted interventions are associated with HIV prevalence decline.</p

Security Mechanisms in Wireless Network

Security is the most common word use by the people today very frequently. The word security shows the status or the excellence of being safe and sound. When people say that any particular object, software or system is secure means it is gratis from any vulnerability. This means the system is secured from people. This attack may be happen deliberately or accidentally. The security in case of network or data, in it means protection of our network or data from unauthorized people and permits those people who are authorized for accessing the network. Now a day, number of software tools is available. To use these tools no prior technical knowledge of computer field is required. Therefore, attackers with less or no knowledge about technology can attack the target easily with the help of these tools. When we use wireless network, security of network is often ignored or not considered seriously. The nature of wireless networks is the main component which makes it simple to compromise. This is the reason that underlines the importance of security in wireless network.

Coastal circulation off Ratnagiri, west coast of India during monsoon seasons: a numerical model study

481-488Present study is the coastal circulation modelling off Ratnagiri under the influence of winds and tides. A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model MIKE 21HD has been used to simulate tides and currents, and model results are in a good agreement with the measurements. In July, representing the southwest monsoon, wind is relatively strong, onshore current component is more pronounced; but, tidal variations are masked to a great extent by the wind driven circulation. Relatively stronger winds of the order of 8 m/s, persisted for a longer period, and that contributed to the southward flowing coastal current which is more consistent in its direction and magnitude. Meridional current has a prominent southward direction with a maximum alongshore speed of ~0.41 m/s. Zonal current is too weak to have a considerable impact on the circulation pattern. Prominent circulation is southward, irrespective of the seasons

Impact of shamal winds and swells on the coastal currents along the west coast of India

1236-1240Wind, wave and current data collected at/off Ratnagiri, west coast of India were analysed to study the wind-wave-current interaction along the west coast of India (WCI) during shamal events. Shamal winds which originate in the Persian Gulf region during winter (November-March) generate swells in the northwestern Arabian Sea, and these swells propagate towards the west coast of India with distinct wave direction (northwest) and increase in wave heights. It is observed that during these events, the de-tided current data present a distinct change in the current direction and increase in current speeds (approximately from 0.08 m/s to 0.15 m/s). <span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"arial="" unicode="" ms";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;background:white;mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:hi"="">It can be inferred from the analysis that the waves which propagate from NW and the currents which flow towards north oppose each other, resulting in intensification of currents off Ratnagiri. In order to understand the intensity of shamal effect on the existing current system, we have also analysed winds and currents before, during and after the events.</span

Wave–current interaction during Hudhud cyclone in the Bay of Bengal

The present work describes the interaction between waves and currents utilizing a coupled ADCIRC+SWAN model for the very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud, which made landfall at Visakhapatnam on the east coast of India in October 2014. Model-computed wave and surge heights were validated with measurements near the landfall point. The Holland model reproduced the maximum wind speed of  ≈  54 m s−1 with the minimum pressure of 950 hPa. The modelled maximum surge of 1.2 m matches with the maximum surge of 1.4 m measured off Visakhapatnam. The two-way coupling with SWAN showed that waves contributed  ≈  0.25 m to the total water level during the Hudhud event. At the landfall point near Visakhapatnam, the East India Coastal Current speed increased from 0.5 to 1.8 m s−1 for a short duration ( ≈  6 h) with net flow towards the south, and thereafter reversed towards the north. An increase of  ≈  0.2 m in Hs was observed with the inclusion of model currents. It was also observed that when waves travelled perpendicular to the coast after crossing the shelf area, with current towards the southwest, wave heights were reduced due to wave–current interaction; however, an increase in wave height was observed on the left side of the track, when waves and currents opposed each other

Spectral analysis of wind field in the Indian Ocean

1191-1195<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:="" en-in;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">To study the variability in wind fields over the Indian Ocean, we used ERA INTERIM daily winds for the period 1979-2012. In order to analyse the temporal variation of wind field, we partitioned the whole Indian Ocean into 6 zones based on spatial inhomogeneity in the analysed wind fields. Spectral analysis of the time series (extracted at the centre of each zone) was performed using the auto-regression analysis based on the Yule-Walker equations. and it confirms that universality of the spectral shaps Frequency spectra show distinct annual variations at all zones; semi-annual variations are observed in the Arabian Sea (Z1) and the Bay of Bengal (Z2) due to the seasonal changes and gradually it disappears from equatorial region (Z3) to southern Indian Ocean (Z6). Also, we observe local maxima at the scale of 1 and 0.5 days-1. The characteristic shape of the spectrum was obtained at two different powers of the frequencies.  Decay rate and variance at all zones are analysed. The decay rate varies almost linearly as a function of zones Z1 to Z6.  Trend of the variance in low frequency range is linear whereas, in high frequency range is exponential. The variance is large in the storm track region. It is found that over the range of frequencies, wind field is independent and is increasing along the zones Z1 to Z6. Latitudinal dependency is clearly observed in both spectral slopes and variances.</span

Role of shamal and easterly winds on the wave characteristics off Qatar, central Arabian Gulf

Waves in the Arabian Gulf (Gulf) are dominated by shamal winds during winter and early summer. Although wave characteristics in the Gulf are broadly studied, features associated with various wind systems are not explicitly covered, especially in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Qatar. In this study, we analyzed the wave parameters measured off Fuwairit, north coast of Qatar during 29 October – 26 November 2019 to identify the features associated with different wind systems. The analyses have been further extended to the Gulf using the reanalysis waves obtained from the COPERNICUS Marine Environment Monitoring Services (CMEMS) to describe the monthly, seasonal and annual characteristics. Results indicate that Nashi winds influence the east and northeast coasts of Qatar with higher waves than those generated by shamal winds. We find exceptional easterly (Nashi) waves during March 2019 contributing to the highest monthly mean Hs, which is a deviation from the known long-term wave climate of the Gulf.This work was jointly carried out under the IRCC International Research Co-Fund Collaboration Program of QU and CSIR-NIO, executed through Office of Research Support (ORS), QU (IRCC-2019-002)

Data Privacy Preserving using Perturbation Technique

Data Mining mainly consist of the discovery of structures, associations and the events in the data. In order to analyze the data related to sector like healthcare, privacy of data is to be maintained. In order to maintain the privacy of data, a perturbation technique is applied on original dataset and a new dataset is formed which is different from original dataset. Data mining can be performed on this perturbed dataset for various surveys and analysis. In this paper, perturbation technique algorithm is explained step by step in order to preserve the privacy of data