Geriatric gynecology: need and spectrum

Background: Geriatric gynaecology deals with gynaecological pathologies essential in post-menopausal women aged 65 years and above. The spectrum of geriatric gynaecological disorders in India differs from those in developed countries as there are no effective screening program for early detection of cancer and the burden of ignorance and taboos. In this study we aim to find the spectrum of gynaecological disorders in geriatric women and establish the need of dedicated geriatric unit.Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted on menopausal women of age 45 years or above who attended gynecology OPD for general counselling about menopause or treatment of menopausal problems over the period of 6 months duration. All these menopausal women attending OPD during this interval were evaluated on the basis of pretested questionnaire.Results: Out of 234 post-menopausal women who entered the study, 29% women belong to geriatric group. Post-menopausal bleeding due to both malignant and benign causes and pelvic organ prolapse are the major problems in geriatric women whereas somatic complaints like flushing, night sweats are more common in younger menopausal women.Conclusions: Where the medical science has successfully increased the life expectancy, focused approach to geriatric gynecology around us is our responsibility, where female still hesitate to come out. The need for dedicated geriatric gynecology unit in India on urgent basis is emphasized by this study wherein cancers can be screened in early stage and severe lifestyle hampering conditions like pelvic organ prolapse can be treated timely

Hierarchy, kinship and social interaction among Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata)

The study reports the relationship between hierarchy, genetic relatedness and social interaction in captive Japanese macaques. Grooming and proximity were found to be positively related to both dominance rank and degrees of relatedness. Ranks also positively correlated with threats while no relationship was observed between genetic relationships and agonistic interactions. The removal of α-male tightened the male hierarchy while the female hierarchy became relatively loose. Affiliative behaviour became more correlated with ranks than degrees of genetic relatedness. In the absence of α-male, the next dominant male avoided involvement in either agonistic or afliliative interactions with reintroduced animals and group females

Infant development and weaning in Macaca silenus in the natural habitats of the Western Ghats, India

This article reports the development of behaviour in 31 lion-tailed macaque infants from birth to the age of 15 months. The study was conducted during January 2002-June 2005. The study animals included a large group of lion-tailed macaques inhabiting a rainforest fragment in the Western Ghats, India. Two critical stages were observed during the development of the infants: one at the age of five and a half months, and another at the age of nine months. When the infants were five and a half months old, there was a sudden increase in the occurrence of nipple contact, a sharp decline in the per cent of infants making nipple contact after this age, a peak in the occurrence of retrieve by the mother, a peak in the occurrence of play by the infant, and a peak in the occurrence of environmental exploration by the infant, and stabilization of exploration after this age. Up to the age of nine months, the occurrence of an infant approaching the mother and mother punishing the infant continued to increase, and these two behaviours abruptly ended at the age of nine months. Mother grooming the infant occurred with a peak at the infant's age of nine months. It appears that in lion-tailed macaques, the mother actively initiated weaning. It began at the infant's age of five and a half months and was completed by the time the infant was nine months old. The mother, however, increased the frequency of grooming the infant, and thus continued to care for the infant in ways that cost her less in terms of parental investment. A longer duration of nipple contact by some male infants, more retrieval and grooming of male infants, and more proximity of male infants to mothers indicated higher maternal parental investment on male infants

5, 10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene mutation and reproductive outcome: how much do we know? A case series in Indian population

Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) defined as loss of two or more pregnancies is one of the reasons why couples visit an ART clinic. 2-5% of RPL cases show an abnormal parental karyotype. Folic acid is an essential B vitamin involved in processes of fundamental importance for cell division and embryo development. Folic acid deficiency can have effect on many processes involved in oocyte development, acquisition of endometrial receptivity, embryo implantation and also in the maintenance of pregnancy. The 5, 10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) enzyme plays an important role in folate metabolism. The most investigated MTHFR gene mutations are single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at the mRNA positions 677 (rs1801133) and 1298 (rs1801131). MTHFR gene mutations are found less in Asian population and hence have not been studied or evaluated much. We presented a case series of 3 different cases of MTHFR gene mutation variants that were managed at our ART center. Testing for MTHFR gene mutation after 3 early pregnancy failures/missed abortions, PGT-A and surrogacy being our proposed interventions

Stand structure of a primate rich rainforest region in the central Western Ghats of Southern India

The Western Ghats of southern India are one of the most important biodiversity regions in the world, not only due to their faunal diversity and abundance but also due to different habitat types, floral diversity and the presence of several endemic plant species. The rainforests in the central Western Ghats are inhabited by several primate species. We investigated the vegetation pattern and tree species occupancy of one of the prime primate habitats in the central Western Ghats. Lion-tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus), Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata), Hanuman Langur (Semnopithecus entellus achates) and Malabar Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus malabaricus) inhabit the study area. We studied the density, dominance, frequency and Importance Value Index (IVI) of different tree species, using the belt transect method on randomly selected plots covering 4.1ha. We found that all the plant species that emerged to be the most dominant species with high IVI in the forest were also used by the diurnal primates for foraging. Knema attenuata and Syzygium gardneri were found to be the 'keystone' species. Since the forests of the study area do not come under the 'protected area network' for wildlife, the data obtained during this study will be helpful in the forestry management practices with a view for wildlife conservation of the region

Location Estimation and Recovery using 5G Positioning: Thwarting GNSS Spoofing Attacks

The availability of cheap GNSS spoofers can prevent safe navigation and tracking of road users. It can lead to loss of assets, inaccurate fare estimation, enforcing the wrong speed limit, miscalculated toll tax, passengers reaching an incorrect location, etc. The techniques designed to prevent and detect spoofing by using cryptographic solutions or receivers capable of differentiating legitimate and attack signals are insufficient in detecting GNSS spoofing of road users. Recent studies, testbeds, and 3GPP standards are exploring the possibility of hybrid positioning, where GNSS data will be combined with the 5G-NR positioning to increase the security and accuracy of positioning. We design the Location Estimation and Recovery(LER) systems to estimate the correct absolute position using the combination of GNSS and 5G positioning with other road users, where a subset of road users can be malicious and collude to prevent spoofing detection. Our Location Verification Protocol extends the understanding of Message Time of Arrival Codes (MTAC) to prevent attacks against malicious provers. The novel Recovery and Meta Protocol uses road users' dynamic and unpredictable nature to detect GNSS spoofing. This protocol provides fast detection of GNSS spoofing with a very low rate of false positives and can be customized to a large family of settings. Even in a (highly unrealistic) worst-case scenario where each user is malicious with a probability of as large as 0.3, our protocol detects GNSS spoofing with high probability after communication and ranging with at most 20 road users, with a false positive rate close to 0. SUMO simulations for road traffic show that we can detect GNSS spoofing in 2.6 minutes since its start under moderate traffic conditions

DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED SMART AND SECURED SYSTEM

A smart system is designed to control the lighting system, fans and security in the industries. We all know sometimes forget to switch off the lights and fans before leaving the room. This system can control 8 units of lights and 6 units of fans every day. Besides, our highly developed industry consist of lot of appliances which needs security and care. Our project focuses on total security with the help of fire alarm and a message alert of any invader. This project uses the Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR sensor) to detect the body heat and the movements of humans. The PIR sensor will give signal to hardware. The hardware of this project is PIC16F887A and RS232 communication module to interface with GSM Modem

Methodological considerations in measurement of dominance in primates

The strength of dominance hierarchy in a group of animals needs to be quantitatively measured since it influences many other aspects of social interactions. This article discusses three attempts made by previous researchers to measure the strength of hierarchy. We propose a method which attempts to rectify the lacunae in the previous attempts. Data are used from a group of Japanese macaques housed in a colony. A method to calculate strength of hierarchy has been illustrated and a procedure has been suggested to normalize the dominance scores in order to place the ranks of individuals on an interval scale

A Retrospective evaluation of hysterolaparoscopy as primary diagnostic tool for female infertility

Background: Infertility has been equally challenging and frustrating to the couple as well as physician. The causative etiology can have multitude of factors. Evaluation of underlying factors and formulating uniform diagnostic protocols is still a challenge for most of the infertility experts. This study was aimed to evaluate hysterolaparoscopy as primary diagnostic tool for female infertility.Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, SMS and R, Sharda University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The data was collected from January2018 to December 2019. A total of 84 cases were studied. Data were entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for cleaning and analysis. Chi-square test and logistic regression were done.Results: Around 86.9% of the patients had abnormal findings. 13% of the patients had no abnormal laparoscopic findings, according to our inclusion criteria. One or the other findings were encountered in 96.4% of the cases. Only 3.5% of the patients had no discernible characteristics as per our inclusion protocol.Conclusions: Irrespective of the investigations protocols used, hysterolaparoscopy finds its importance in most of the clinical settings. This investigative approach is professed as superior to hysterosalpingogram and Saline Infusion sonography when used alone. In the present study, we propose diagnostic hysterolaproscopy as first and one step approach, between days 8-11 of the cycle, as an effective diagnostic tool in cases of infertility.

Cryptography Is Not Enough: Relay Attacks on Authenticated GNSS Signals

Civilian-GNSS is vulnerable to signal spoofing attacks, and countermeasures based on cryptographic authentication are being proposed to protect against these attacks. Both Galileo and GPS are currently testing broadcast authentication techniques based on the delayed key disclosure to validate the integrity of navigation messages. These authentication mechanisms have proven secure against record now and replay later attacks, as navigation messages become invalid after keys are released. This work analyzes the security guarantees of cryptographically protected GNSS signals and shows the possibility of spoofing a receiver to an arbitrary location without breaking any cryptographic operation. In contrast to prior work, we demonstrate the ability of an attacker to receive signals close to the victim receiver and generate spoofing signals for a different target location without modifying the navigation message contents. Our strategy exploits the essential common reception and transmission time method used to estimate pseudorange in GNSS receivers, thereby rendering any cryptographic authentication useless. We evaluate our attack on a commercial receiver (ublox M9N) and a software-defined GNSS receiver (GNSS-SDR) using a combination of open-source tools, commercial GNSS signal generators, and software-defined radio hardware platforms. Our results show that it is possible to spoof a victim receiver to locations around 4000 km away from the true location without requiring any high-speed communication networks or modifying the message contents. Through this work, we further highlight the fundamental limitations in securing a broadcast signaling-based localization system even if all communications are cryptographically protected