The special selective drive (SSD) was conducted on a request from the Joint Director of Health Services (Leprosy and TB) Government of Maharashtra. The study team comprised the Foundation for Medical Research (FMR), assisted by a member of the Acworth Leprosy Hospital Society for Research, Rehabilitation and Education in Leprosy and two from Kushtrog Nivaran Samiti (KNS). The drive was conducte...

BACKGROUND Several ubiquitous polyhalogenated compounds (PHCs) have been shown to alter thyroid function in animal and in vitro studies. So far, epidemiologic studies have focused on the potential effect of a small number of them, namely, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and some organochlorines (OCs), without paying attention to other important PHCs. OBJECTIVES We investigated the relationsh...

BACKGROUND In Korea, the cumulative number of HIV-infected individuals was smaller than those of other countries. Mandatory HIV tests, dominating method until 1990's, have been gradually changed to voluntary HIV tests. We investigated HIV seroprevalence status and its characteristics of visitors to Public Health Centers (PHCs), which conducted both mandatory test and voluntary test under the na...

The amphiphilic graft copolymer using chitosan (CS) as hydrophilic segment and poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) as hydrophobic segment, was prepared through a protection-graft-de protection route. Chitosan is a polysaccharide comprising of copolymers of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine. Chitosan is the deacetylated derivative of chitin, which is one of the most abundant natural polysaccharides c...

The Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD) receives a mixture of hydrocarbons from biogenic, pyrogenic, and petrogenic processes. Source apportionment in the PAD has focussed on polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), which are ubiquitous environment susceptible to weathering. In contrast, petroleum biomarkers terpanes, hopanes, steranes degradation-resistant organic found uniquely products that can identif...

We show that periodic distributions of gain or losses on the wavelength scale allow managing spatial diffraction of light beams, with no index contrast. It has been recently predicted that such artificial periodic structures, analogous to Photonic Crystals (PhCs), would also hold the novel spatial beam propagation effects reported for PhCs such as subdiffraction propagation, self-collimation, s...

Public health centers (PHCs, hokenjo in Japanese) are local government authorities responsible for public health in Japan. As of 2010, 494 centers were operating under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan. While the general rule is that one PHC covers 300,000 inhabitants, several centers cover a population of more than 1 million. The roles of PHCs described in the Community Healt...

BACKGROUND Safety and effectiveness of efficacious antiretroviral (ARV) regimens beyond single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP) for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) have been demonstrated in well-controlled clinical studies or in secondary- and tertiary-level facilities in developing countries. This paper reports on implementation of and factors associated with efficacious ARV regimens...