This study examined drivers and barriers of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) policies in urban informal settlements in low and middle-income countries. We conducted a search of peer-reviewed and ...grey literature published between January 2000 and April 2018. We organized evidence into six domains of drivers and barriers: economic, spatial, social, institutional, political, and informational. Key drivers included donor prioritization and collective action, while key barriers included social exclusion, lack of land or dwelling tenure status, the political economy of decision-making, and insufficient data. Ensuring responsive water and sanitation policies for informal settlements will require inter-disciplinary collaboration and both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
To develop a computerized diagnostic model to characterize the ovarian cyst at its early stage in order to avoid unnecessary biopsy and patient anxiety.
The main cause of mortality and infertility in ...women is ovarian cancer. It is very difficult to diagnose ovarian cancer using ultrasonography as benign and malignant ovarian masses or cysts exhibit similar characteristics. Early prediction and characterization of ovarian masses will reduce the unwanted growth of the ovarian mass.
Transvaginal 2D B mode ovarian mass ultrasound images were preprocessed initially to enhance the image quality. And then, the region of interest (ROI) in this case ovarian cyst was segmented. Finally, Local Binary Pattern (LBP) textural features were extracted. A Support Vector Machine was trained to classify the ovarian cyst or mass as benign or malignant.
The performance of the SVM improved with an average accuracy of 92% when the textural features were extracted from the Original Gray Value-based LBP (OGV-LBP) image than the histogram- based LBP.
The SVM can classify the transvaginal 2D B mode ovarian cyst ultrasound images into benign and malignant effectively when the textural features from the original gray value-based LBP extracted were considered.
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•Ag doped ZnO nanomaterials enhanced Oleic-Myristic acid eutectic PCMs were developed.•The synthesized microcapsules have uniform spherical morphology with an average size of 3–5 ...μm.•The melting and freezing enthalpies of microcapsules are about 75–80 J/g and 75–78 J/g.•Microcapsules with highest weight percentage of Ag doped ZnO nanomaterials showed high thermal conductivity enhancement.
Novel microcapsules of Ag doped ZnO nanomaterials enhanced Oleic-Myristic acid eutectic phase change materials (PCMs) were synthesized by in-situ polymerization process. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that Ag doped ZnO nanomaterials has a hexagonal wurtzite structure. Nano enhanced composite PCMs are prepared by mixing different weight percentage of nanomaterials with Oleic-Myristic acid eutectic mixture act as core material. Microscopic analysis reveals the formation of uniform spherical structure of Melamine-Formaldehyde shell over the core material with a perfect core-shell structure. Differential scanning calorimetric analysis showed that microencapsulated PCMs (MEPCMs) melts and freezes in the range of 4.37–5.81 °C and 10.84–11.86 °C with the latent heat of 75.39–79.35 J/g and 74.9–77.95 J/g. MEPCMs have better thermal conductivity, stability and reliability determined by thermal conductivity, thermogravimetric and thermal cycling analysis. Based on the results, MEPCMs with Ag doped ZnO nanomaterials could be suggested as the potential core material for low temperature thermal energy storage applications.
In this paper, a new two dimensional modified Henon map (2D-MHM) which is derived from Henon map is proposed. Its chaotic performance is analyzed through bifurcation diagram, Lyapunov exponent ...spectrum and Lyapunov dimension. The map has broad chaotic regime over an extensive range of system parameters, maximum Lyapunov exponent and better chaotic performance when compared to existing chaotic maps. Further, a novel image cryptosystem is proposed based on 2D-MHM and sine map. The algorithm employs confusion and diffusion operations in consecutive manner which is different from traditional chaos based cryptosystems. Hybrid chaotic shift transform (HCST) is introduced to perform confusion operation which is controlled by 2D-MHM. The principle of diffusion is achieved by using chaotic matrix generated from sine map and exclusive or (XOR) operation. Extensive simulation results and performance analysis demonstrate that the proposed image cryptosystem is able to resist various cryptanalytic attacks. Furthermore, the comparison results reveal that the algorithm outperforms traditional and existing encryption schemes. The proposed algorithm is also applicable for speech signals and data encryption of other multimedia.
Air pollution and stunting: a missing link? Sinharoy, Sheela S; Clasen, Thomas; Martorell, Reynaldo
The Lancet global health,
April 2020, 2020-Apr, 2020-04-00, 20200401, 2020-04-01, Letnik:
8, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Abstract
Background
Despite a strong theoretical rationale for combining water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) interventions to improve child health, study findings are heterogeneous with little ...understanding of the mechanisms for these effects. Our study objective was to demonstrate the utility of structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess intervention effects on height-for-age z score (HAZ) through the complex system of WaSH pathways.
Methods
We used data from a matched cohort effectiveness evaluation of a combined on-premise piped water and improved sanitation intervention in rural Odisha, India. Height/length was measured in children 0–59 months old (n = 1826) from 90 matched villages in February–June 2016. WaSH behaviours and infrastructure were assessed through household surveys and observation, respectively. We used SEM to calculate the standardized path coefficients and the total contributions of WaSH pathways to HAZ.
Results
Intervention improvements on HAZ were through the sanitation pathway (coverage → use β: 0.722; use → HAZ β: 0.116), with piped water coverage indirectly affecting HAZ through improved sanitation use (β: 0.148). Although the intervention had a positive association with handwashing station coverage, there was no evidence of a total hygiene pathway effect on HAZ or further direct effects through the water pathways.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates the utility of SEM to assess the mechanisms through which combined WaSH interventions impact HAZ as a system of pathways, providing a more nuanced assessment than estimation of the total intervention effect. Our finding, that water impacts HAZ through the sanitation pathway, is an important and actionable insight for WaSH programming.
Important disparities exist in anemia diagnosis globally. We examine individuals’ and populations’ access to anemia diagnosis, the accuracy of diagnostic tests, and the interpretation of test results ...through the lens of key ethical considerations. These include the human right to health and the Rawlsian concept of the social contract, as well as ethical principles, such as autonomy, self‐liberty, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. We discuss factors that influence individuals’ and communities’ access to high‐quality health services, including geography, gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Geographic and other differences exist in the types of diagnostic equipment and methods used to diagnose anemia, potentially leading to differential classification of anemia across individuals and populations. A diagnosis of anemia also requires follow‐up to understand etiology and appropriate treatment. However, this is not done consistently, in clinical care or in population‐based surveys. To better understand the problem and track countries’ progress, a need exists for disaggregated, longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data on disparities related to anemia. Moving forward, it will be important for countries to improve equitable access to high‐quality health services, particularly primary health care services, and to address barriers to the ability of individuals or communities to effectively enjoy the right to health.
Background: Stem cells exist in niches in the cervical tissue at squamocolumnar junction, which when infected with HR-Human Papilloma Virus undergo malignant transformation to cancer stem cells and ...have a role in carcinogenesis and metastasis. The expression of CD44, P16, and Ki67 in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is assessed in this study.
Materials and Methods: Twenty-six cases each of normal cervix, HSIL, and SCC of cervix cases were subjected to immunohistochemistry markers; p16, Ki-67, and CD44. The association of expression of these markers between normal, HSIL, SCC cervix, and clinic-pathological parameters was statistically analyzed. P < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Of 26 cases of HSIL, 61.5%, 7.7%, and 30.8% cases were positive, ambiguous, and negative respectively for p16 expression. About 11.5%, 53.8%, and 34.6% of cases were strongly positive, positive, and weakly positive, respectively, for Ki-67 expression. About 42.3%, 42.3%, and 15.4% cases were strongly positive, positive, and weakly positive, respectively, for CD44 expression. Among 26 cases of SCC of the cervix 92.3% and 7.7% were positive and ambiguous respectively. About 73.1% and 26.9% of cases were strongly positive and positive, respectively, for Ki-67 expression. 65.4%, 30.8%, and 3.8% of cases were strongly positive, positive, and weakly positive, respectively, for CD44 expression. p16, Ki-67, and CD44 expression between the three groups were statistically significant. p16 expression versus FIGO stage including lymph node involvement and CD44 expression versus lymph node involvement in carcinoma cervix was statistically significant.
Conclusion: Expression of p16, Ki-67, and CD44 increases as the lesion progress from normal to HSIL to carcinoma cervix. p16 and CD44 expression increase with lymph node involvement. P16 expression was maximum in Stage II than Stage III.
Harmful bacteria can easily contaminate feeding utensils and implements used for expressing and storing milk or preparing formula, including tubes, pump parts, bottles, teats, and other storage ...containers, presenting a hidden and under-recognised danger to infant health. Bacteria might be introduced from infants' mouths, health-care workers' hands, unclean water, or the hospital environment, and can multiply in milk residuals when utensils and implements are not adequately cleaned. Most neonatal deaths occur in the first week of life, and the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 estimates that pathogens such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Acinetobacter baumanii, and Escherichia coli are responsible for more than 200 000 deaths per year in neonates.6 The health-care environment in which a mother is encouraged to deliver is a well known source of exposure to these pathogens, including multidrug-resistant and pan-resistant strains that are extremely challenging to treat.
Summary Exposure to early-life stress is a risk factor for the development of cognitive and emotional disorders later in life. We previously demonstrated that prenatal stress (PNS) in rats results in ...long-term, stable changes in central stress-response systems and impairs the ability to extinguish conditioned fear responding, a component of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Maternal corticosterone (CORT), released during prenatal stress, is a possible mediator of these effects. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether fetal exposure to CORT at levels induced by PNS is sufficient to alter the development of adult stress neurobiology and fear extinction behavior. Pregnant dams were subject to either PNS (60 min immobilization/day from ED 14–21) or a daily injection of CORT (10 mg/kg), which approximated both fetal and maternal plasma CORT levels elicited during PNS. Control dams were given injections of oil vehicle. Male offspring were allowed to grow to adulthood undisturbed, at which point they were sacrificed and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus, hypothalamus, and a section of the rostral pons containing the locus coeruleus (LC) were dissected. PNS and prenatal CORT treatment decreased glucocorticoid receptor protein levels in the mPFC, hippocampus, and hypothalamus when compared to control offspring. Both treatments also decreased tyrosine hydroxylase levels in the LC. Finally, the effect of prenatal CORT exposure on fear extinction behavior was examined following chronic stress. Prenatal CORT impaired both acquisition and recall of cue-conditioned fear extinction. This effect was additive to the impairment induced by previous chronic stress. Thus, these data suggest that fetal exposure to high levels of maternal CORT is responsible for many of the lasting neurobiological consequences of PNS as they relate to the processes underlying extinction of learned fear. The data further suggest that adverse prenatal environments constitute a risk factor for PTSD-like symptomatology, especially when combined with chronic stressors later in life.
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