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Human rights are universal basic rights that give equal rights to all individuals irrespective of caste, creed, religion, language, color, or culture. Human rights include all fundamental rights such as the right to equality, education, work and to lead a life with dignity. Human rights help to resolve conflicts and address grievances and discrimination to create a sustainable society. The objective of the present study is to understand the level of human rights awareness among quarry mining employees particularly from the mining sector. There are very few studies that focused on the mining employees on social aspects. Hence, the study was undertaken to assess the level of understanding and awareness among quarry mining employees in urban Bangalore, Karnataka, India. For the said purpose, a descriptive quantitative study using survey-based method was applied and data was collected through random sampling using survey questionnaires. Statistics and thematic analysis on quantitative data indicate urban employees had a general awareness of the subject, but lacked the essential awareness, particularly in terms of economic, social, and cultural rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the book "Socially Responsible Higher Education: International Perspectives on Knowledge Democracy" edited by Hall and Tandon. The book explores the role of higher education institutions in promoting social projects in their local communities, with a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It includes chapters on topics such as civic learning, decolonizing education, engaged action and teaching, and the renegotiation of knowledge and society. The book provides examples of initiatives to increase access to knowledge and emphasizes the importance of higher education institutions prioritizing their third mission of engagement and dialogue with the public. The reviewer recommends the book for its creative solutions to increase social responsibility in local and international contexts. [Extracted from the article]

Randomly computed elliptic curves over prime fields are desirable for implementation in strategic or military grade cryptosystems. A randomly computed elliptic curve eliminates the possibility of exhibiting any pre‐studied value or special structure of the curve parameters which may be doubted to have intentionally non‐disclosed vulnerability. However, computing elliptic curves randomly over large prime fields for cryptography is an intricate task which requires reasonably high computational resources and time. These computational resources are considered in terms of the number of CPU clock cycles and the number of attempts or searches made in the security parameter space of elliptic curve. The estimate of the number of CPU clock cycles helps in determining processor requirements whereas the number of attempts or searches help to decide the number of CPU cores for speeding up the curve generation process. We present efficient statistical estimates of computational resources to randomly compute cryptographically safe elliptic curve over desired prime field size using a standard procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The survey presents the evolution of Short Weierstrass elliptic curves after their introduction in cryptography. Subsequently, this evolution resulted in the establishment of present elliptic curve computational standards. We discuss the chronology of attacks on Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP) and investigate their countermeasures to highlight the evolved selection criteria of cryptographically safe elliptic curves. Further, two popular deterministic and random approaches for selection of Short Weierstrass elliptic curve for cryptography are evaluated from computational, security and trust perspectives and a trend in existent computational standards is demonstrated. Finally, standard and non-standard elliptic curves are analysed to add a new insight into their usability. There is no such survey conducted in past to the best of our knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short Weierstrass elliptic curves with underlying hard Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP) are widely used in cryptographic applications. A notion of security called Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) security is also suggested in literature to safeguard the elliptic curve cryptosystems from their implementation flaws. In this paper, a new security notion called the "trusted security" is introduced for computational method of elliptic curves for cryptography. We propose three additional "trusted security acceptance criteria" which need to be met by the elliptic curves aimed for cryptography. Further, two cryptographically secure elliptic curves over 256 bit and 384 bit prime fields are demonstrated which are secure from ECDLP, ECC as well as trust perspectives. The proposed elliptic curves are successfully subjected to thorough security analysis and performance evaluation with respect to key generation and signing/verification and hence, proven for their cryptographic suitability and great feasibility for acceptance by the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Alpha thalassaemia is one of the haemoglobin disorders in which the carriers of alpha thalassaemia may have normal haemoglobin level and are eligible to donate blood which may bring complications. This study is to investigate the interaction of haematological parameter with a-globin genotypes among eligible blood donors. Materials & Methods: A cohort study with 270 eligible blood donors were analysed for red cell indices. Alpha-globin (a-globin) genotyping was performed for seven deletions, six point mutations and two triplications. Statistical analyses were performed to compare the α-globin genotypes with haematological data. Results: High prevalence of α-thalassaemia carriers (7.7%, 21/270) was found among blood donors. All of them did not show anaemic pictures with a normal Hb level (>12 gm/dl). Five genotypes were identified consisting of 249 αα/αα (92.2%), nine -α3.7/αα (3.3%), nine--SEA/αα (3.3%), two -α4.2/αα (0.7%) and one ααCS/αα (0.4%). Different α-globin genotypes showed a significant difference in RBC, MCV, MCH, MCHC, RDW, and Hct/Hb ratio (p<0.05) due to the different extent of α-globin chain reduction. Conclusion: Our study concluded that by using Hb level alone is not sufficient to screen for the eligibility of blood donors. Full blood count (FBC) screening with borderline MCV and MCH levels might be able to rule out silent α-thalassemia carriers. FBC and molecular characterisation should be incorporated together to properly rule out α-thalassaemia carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Altitude chamber exposures are used for training to allow aircrew to experience their hypoxia and pressure effect symptoms. Decompression illness (DCI) can occur subsequent to altitude chamber training or in operational aircraft when the cabin altitude is at least 18,000 feet. Definitive emergent treatment is hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) to decrease bubble size, dissipate excess nitrogen hyperoxygenate tissue and reduce inflammation. Case report: A 27-year-old female underwent altitude chamber training to 25,000 feet. She developed tingling in both legs and left arm, headache, dizziness, malaise, then difficulty talking. She underwent two HBO2 treatments. Over the next 12 months she had paresthesia, decreased memory and cognitive function similar to symptoms seen following traumatic brain injury. She was referred 14 months after the event for evaluation. Using pre-deployment Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) and serial tests over 58 HBO2 treatments, the patient demonstrated near-return to her pre-deployment test scores. Discussion: The reason for HBO2 treatment was based on previous experience with chronic traumatic brain injury subjects where HBO2 improved outcome. The patient's chronic neurological symptoms mimicked chronic TBI. The patient was unique in that baseline cognitive tests existed that could be used to monitor her changes during the treatment series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To describe the clinical pattern of uveitis in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) at a tertiary care eye hospital over a period of 30 years.Methods: The medical records of 32 eyes of 22 patients of RP with uveitis were included in this study. Collected data included age, subsets of uveitis, best corrected visual acuities (BCVA), detailed laboratory investigations, and treatment.Results: Mean age at presentation was 53.4 ± 18.8 years, and mean age of diagnosis of RP was 39.2 ± 21.4 years. Uveitis was bilateral in 10 (45.5%) patients. The most common of uveitis in current study was anterior uveitis (56.2%), followed by intermediate uveitis (43.8%). Cataract developed in 12 (37.5%) eyes, and three eyes had raised intraocular pressure. Ten patients (45.5%) required oral steroid, and one patient required oral methotrexate.Conclusions: Uveitis in RP patients is rare, but not uncommon. Coexistence of these disorders might support the inflammatory pathway in etiology of RP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing is a emerging technology in the present and the days to come for providing different kind of services to the end users. It focuses mainly the dynamic services using very large scalable and virtualized resources over the Internet. The allocation of the group of resources may start a problem of availability of these resources and distributing the workload of all the VMs among themselves called as load balancing. Load balancing is a challenging phenomenon in cloud computing. It ensures that no single node is overloaded by distributing the workload among the nodes properly. This is done to improve the results of the system. Due to novelty of cloud computing field, there is no many standard load balancing algorithm used in cloud environment. Hence efficient utilization of resources must be important and for that load balancing plays a major role to get maximum benefit from the resources. Having understood the vital role of load balancing, this paper covers various load balancing algorithms related to cloud computing and shows a comparative study on load balancing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiplication by a constant is a common operation for many signal, image, and video processing applications that are implemented in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Constant-coefficient multipliers (KCMs) are often implemented in the logic fabric using lookup tables (LUTs), reserving embedded hard multipliers for general-purpose multiplication. This paper describes a two-operand addition circuit from previous work and shows how it can be used to generate and add pre-computed partial products to implement KCMs. A novel method for pre-computing partial products for KCMs with a negative constant is also presented. These KCMs are then extended to have two to eight coefficients that may be selected by a control signal at runtime to implement time-multiplexed multiple-constant multiplication. Synthesis results show that proposed pipelined KCMs use 27.4% fewer LUTs on average and have a median LUT-delay product that is 12% lower than comparable LogiCORE IP KCMs. Proposed pipelined KCMs with two to eight selectable coefficients use 46% to 70% fewer LUTs than the best LogiCORE IP based alternative and most are faster than using a LogiCORE IP multiplier with a coefficient lookup function. They also outperform the state-of-the-art in the literature, using 22% to 57% fewer slices than the smallest pipelined adder graph (PAG) fusion designs and operate 7% to 30% faster than the fastest PAG fusion designs for the same operand size and number of selectable coefficients. For KCMs and KCMs with selectable coefficients of a given operand size, the placement and routing of LUTs remains the same for all positive and negative constant values, which is advantageous for runtime partial reconfiguration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) may cause persistent cognitive dysfunction. A pilot clinical study was performed to determine if hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) treatment improves cognitive performance. It was hypothesized that stem cells, mobilized by HBO2 treatment, are recruited to repair damaged neuronal tissue. This hypothesis was tested by measuring the relative abundance of stem cells in peripheral blood and cognitive performance during this clinical trial. The subject population consisted of 28 subjects with persistent cognitive impairment caused by mild to moderate TBI suffered during military deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis was performed for stem cell markers in peripheral blood and correlated with variables resulting from standard tests of cognitive performance and post-traumatic stress disorder: ImPACT, BrainCheckers and PCL-M test results. HBO2 treatment correlated with stem cell mobilization as well as increased cognitive performance. Together these results support the hypothesis that stem cell mobilization may be required for cognitive improvement in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly two decades of research on the host-pathogen interaction in fusiform rust of loblolly pine is detailed. Results clearly indicate that pathotype-specific genes in the host interacting with pathogen avirulence cause resistance as defined by the non-gall phenotype under favorable environmental conditions for disease development. In particular, nine fusiform rust resistance genes (Fr genes) are described here including the specific methods to determine each and their localization on the reference genetic map of loblolly pine. Understanding how these and other apparent Fr genes in loblolly pine and other rust-susceptible pines impact resistance screening, parental and progeny selection, and family and clonal deployment is an important area in forest genetics research and operational tree breeding. The documentation of these Fr genes is a key piece of information towards gaining that understanding and ultimately improving breeding and deployment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Determine changes in cognition and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in subjects with traumatic brain injury (TBI) exposed to 2.4 atmospheres absolute (atm abs) breathing 100% oxygen vs. sham (1.3 atm-abs air). Methods: Fifty randomized subjects completed a total of 30 exposures. A concussion history was taken, then baseline, post-series, and six-week follow-up immediate post-concussion assessment and cognitive testing, Braincheckers and PTSD Checklist for Military (PCL-M) tests were administered. Results: No statistically significant differences between groups were noted, but both groups improved. Subgroups analyses, based on concussion history and individual. Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference between a sham and 2.4 atm abs hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) in cognitive scores from ImPACT and Braincheckers or composite scores in the PCL-M; however both groups showed improvement. Subgroups with favorable response to treatment are identified. Future studies evaluating HBO2 should consider concussion histories or focus on validating subgroup response to determine HBO2 as a potential adjunctive treatment for persistent symptoms following TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two different data variables may behave very similarly. Correlation is the problem of determining how much alike the two variables actually are and association rules are used just to show the relationships between data items. Mining fuzzy association rules is the job of finding the fuzzy item-sets which frequently occur together in large fuzzy data set, where the presence of one fuzzy item-set in a record does not necessarily imply the presence of the other one in the same record. In this paper a new method of discovering fuzzy association rules using fuzzy correlation rules is proposed, because the fuzzy support and confidence measures are insufficient at filtering out uninteresting fuzzy correlation rules. To tackle this weakness, a fuzzy correlation measure for fuzzy numbers, is used to augment the fuzzy support-confidence framework for fuzzy association rules. We have extended the Apriori algorithm to fuzzy multiple correlation analysis, which is the new approach presented in this paper comparing to most of the previous works. A practical study over the academic behaviour of a particular school is done and some valuable suggestions are given, based on the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Congestion control algorithm is one of the keys that keep any network efficient and reliable for the users. Many Algorithms were proposed in the literature over the years for the efficient control of congestion that occur in the network. Active Queue Management (AQM) is one such algorithm that provides better congestion control in the recent years. It works at the router for controlling the number of packets in the router's buffer by actively discarding an arriving packet if congestion occurs. The algorithms given in the literature give better delay performance and high throughput over different traffic conditions. In this paper an exhaustive survey is made on the AQM Algorithms that were proposed and the merits and demerits is presented [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the investigation and examination of the phases of segmentation of iris recognition. It discusses the use and result of the proposed optimization technique Optimized Iris Segmentation using Sobel Edge Detection in amplifying the performance of the phases of segmentation. It also explores the importance of iris recognition, in which it says that it is considered to have the most accurate identification of a person.

AbstractFrom 1997 to 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Northeast Area-wide Tick Control Project used acaricide-treated 4-Poster Deer Treatment Bait Stations in five eastern states to control ticks feeding on white-tailed deer. The objectives of this host-targeted technology were to reduce free-living blacklegged (Ixodes scapularisSay) and lone star (Amblyomma americanum[L.]) tick populations and thereby to reduce the risk of tick-borne disease. During 2002 to 2004, treatments were suspended, and tick population recovery rates were assayed. Subsequently, the major factors that influenced variations in efficacy were extrapolated to better understand and improve this technology. Treatments resulted in significant reductions in free-living populations of nymphal blacklegged ticks at six of the seven sites, and lone star ticks were significantly reduced at all three sites where they were present. During the study, maximal significant (p≤ 0.05) efficacies against nymphal blacklegged and lone star ticks at individual sites ranged from 60.0 to 81.7 and 90.9 to 99.5%, respectively. The major environmental factor that reduced efficacy was the occurrence of heavy acorn masts, which provided an alternative food resource for deer. Although the 4-Poster technology requires 1 or more years to show efficacy, this host-targeted intervention was demonstrated to be an efficacious, economical, safe, and environment-friendly alternative to area-wide spraying of acaricide to control free-living populations of these tick species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe efficacy of topically treating white-tailed deer with an acaricide was evaluated in a Lyme disease–endemic community of southern New York State. Twenty-four 4-Poster feeders were placed in a 5.2 km2treatment area in Bedford, NY, while a site in Lewisboro, NY, 4.8 km distant, served as control. Treatment periods ran from 15 September to 15 December each fall from 1997 to 2001, and from 15 March to 15 May each spring from 1998 to 2002. Corn consumption averaged 15,779 kg in fall sessions and 9054 kg in spring sessions, and a mean of 89.6% of deer in the study area showed evidence of using the feeders. Deer densities, estimated by aerial snow counts, averaged 22 and 28 deer per km2in Bedford and Lewisboro, respectively, over a 3-year period. Significant reductions in tick numbers on deer captured in the treatment area were noted in fall 1999 compared to deer captured at the control site. Drag sampling for nymphal host-seeking ticks indicated 63.6% control in 2001, which dropped to 54.8% the following year, but reached 80% in 2003. Higher-than-normal acorn production in 2001 that likely caused a drop in deer visitation to the feeders may have reduced efficacy against larval ticks in 2002. The 4-Poster effectively reduced the density of Ixodes scapularis, though the level of control is dependent on environmental factors that affect feeding behavior of white-tailed deer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe Northeast Area-wide Tick Control Project (NEATCP) was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a large-scale cooperative demonstration project of the USDA—Agricultural Research Service (ARS)–patented 4-Poster tick control technology (Pound et al. 1994) involving the USDA—ARS and a consortium of universities, state agencies, and a consulting firm at research locations in the five states of Connecticut (CT), Maryland (MD), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), and Rhode Island (RI). The stated objective of the project was “A community-based field trial of ARS-patented tick control technology designed to reduce the risk of Lyme disease in northeastern states.” Here we relate the rationale and history of the technology, a chronological listing of events leading to implementation of the project, the original protocol for selecting treatment, and control sites, and protocols for deployment of treatments, sampling, assays, data analyses, and estimates of efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractFrom 1998–2002 twenty-five deer self-treatment devices (4-Posters), using 2% amitraz, were operated at three locations in Maryland to determine their effectiveness in controlling blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularisSay, and lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum(L.). Each treatment site was ≈518 ha and paired with a similar site lacking 4-Posters. Locations varied in deer density, tick abundance, and land use. Flagging for host-seeking ticks showed declines in tick populations at all treatment sites compared to control sites by the third year. By 2002, control of I. scapularisnymphs attributable to the 4-Poster intervention at the three sites was 69.0%, 75.8%, and 80%. Control of A. americanumnymphs at the two sites where they occurred was 99.5% and 95.3%. In 2003, the first posttreatment year, control of I. scapularisremained around 2001–2002 levels, but by 2004, an upward trend in nymphal numbers was detectable. Populations of A. americanumshowed no increase posttreatment. These results demonstrate that control of these tick species is locally possible with 4-Poster intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe 4-Poster device for the topical treatment of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus(Zimmermann), against ticks using the acaricide amitraz, was evaluated in a Lyme borreliosis endemic community in Connecticut. As part of a 5-year project from 1997 to 2002, 21–24 of the 4-Posters were distributed at residential sites in Old Lyme, CT, in a core treatment area of ≈5.2 km2in fall 1997. The 4-Posters were active October to mid-December and March into May, corresponding to the peak periods of activity for adult Ixodes scapularisin this particular area. Corn consumption ranged from 361 to 4789 kg/month for October and November and 696–3130 kg/month during April. Usage of 4-Posters by deer generally was high (>90%), except during acorn masts in fall 1998 and 2001. Amitraz was applied by rollers at the estimated rate of 1.3 g active ingredient/ha/year. The abundance of host-seeking I. scapularisnymphs declined significantly (p< 0.001) in the core treatment area, as compared to a control community in Old Saybrook, CT, through 2004, over the project period from 1998 to 2003, from 9.3/100m2to 0.97/100m2, rising to 1.90/100m2in 2004. From 1999 through 2003, there were 46.1%, 49.6%, 63.4%, 64.6%, and 70.2% reductions, respectively, in the nymphal tick population in comparison with the untreated community and initial tick abundance in 1998. Control of I. scapularisadults declined to only 19.1% in 2004; 2 years after the treatment of deer was discontinued. Differences in nymphal tick abundance between the control and core treatment area were significant in 1999 (p= 0.042) and highly significant in 2001 (p< 0.001) and 2002 (p= 0.002). The passive topical application to deer of the acaricide amitraz resulted in a significant decrease in the population of free-living I. scapularisnymphs in the treated core in Connecticut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAs part of the Northeast Area-wide Tick Control Project (NEATCP), meta-analyses were performed using pooled data on the extent of tick-vector control achieved through seven concurrent studies, conducted within five states, using U.S. Department of Agriculture “4-Poster” devices to deliver targeted-acaricide to white-tailed deer. Although reductions in the abundance of all life-stages of Ixodes scapulariswere the measured outcomes, this study focused on metrics associated with I. scapularisnymphal tick densities as this measure has consistently proven to directly correlate with human risk of acquiring Lyme disease. Since independent tick sampling schemes were undertaken at each of the five environmentally distinct study locations, a meta-analytic approach permitted estimation of a single true control-effect size for each treatment year of the NEATCP. The control-effect is expressed as the annual percent I. scapularisnymphal control most consistent with meta-analysis data for each treatment year. Our meta-analyses indicate that by the sixth treatment year, the NEATCP effectively reduced the relative density of I. scapularisnymphs by 71% on the 5.14 km2treatment sites, corresponding to a 71% lower relative entomologic risk index for acquiring Lyme disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is scant information in the literature regarding the transverse genicular ligament. In order to elucidate further the anatomy and controversial function of this structure, we dissected 28 cadavers. This ligament was identified in 55% of knee joints. Morphometrically, we found a mean length and width of this ligament of 35.4 and 2.5 mm, respectively. Two (3.7%) specimens were found to have a duplicated ligament. The mean distance between the anterior attachment site of the anterior cruciate ligament onto the tibia to the transverse genicular ligament was 2.5 mm and the mean distance to this ligament to a midpoint of the tibial tuberosity was 40.5 mm The transverse genicular ligament was found to be slightly taut in extension and lax in flexion of the knee joint. Lateral and medial forces applied manually to the knee had no effect on this ligament. No tension was noted of the transverse genicular ligament with rotation of the knee. With transection of the ligament, no discernable difference in the integrity of the knee joint was observed. The mean tensile strength of this ligament was 67 N. Based on our study, the transverse genicular ligament plays a minimal part in the proper function of the knee joint. Moreover, with only approximately one-half of the knees in our study harboring this structure, one would expect a significant portion of the population to exhibit signs of biomechanical dysfunction of the knee joint which is not the case. This structure may represent a vestigal/insular part of the mesenchyme forming the menisci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few reports are found in the extant medical literature regarding the vastoadductor membrane. This membrane effectively creates a subcompartment within the subsartorial canal. The lower limbs of 16 embalmed adult cadavers were dissected to identify the vastoadductor membrane and note its measurements. A vastoadductor membrane was identified in all specimens and was derived from the medial intermuscular septum. This membrane connected the medial edge of the vastus medialis muscle to the lateral edge of the adductor magnus muscle. Membranes were all wider proximally and narrowed distally. The mean length of this structure was 7.6 cm. The mean width of the vastoadductor membrane at its proximal, midportion, and distal parts was 2.2, 1.7, and 0.5 cm, respectively. The mean distance from the anterior superior iliac spine to the proximal border of the vastoadductor membrane was 28 cm. The mean distance from the distal border of the membrane to the adductor tubercle was 10 cm. Seventy-five percent of specimens exhibited a fenestrated vastoadductor membrane. Branches of the saphenous nerve to the skin of the medial thigh pierced the vastoadductor membrane in 31% of specimens. Two specimens demonstrated branches derived from the branch of the obturator nerve that pierced this membrane en route to the skin of the medial thigh. Perforating venous branches from the great saphenous vein were identified in 22% of specimens. As compression of the femoral artery at the adductor hiatus is a well-recognized entity, the clinician may also try to explore potential compression of this vessel more proximally by an overlying vastoadductor membrane. The authors would also hypothesize that due to the interconnection between the adductor magnus and vastus medialis by the vastoadductor membrane that a potential synergy exists between the functions of these two muscles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]