ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Preparedness of Prospective Nurses to Work as Midwives in Hospital and Community

Background: It is desirable to have skilled midwives to provide competent care in hospital and community setting. Aims and Objectives: The objectives were to assess curriculum adequacy, preparedness and job preferences of prospective nurses. Materials and Methods: A descriptive survey was used for the study. Thestudy was carried out at nursing institutes in Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra, India. The participants were the 200 prospective Nurses(final year Nursing students) of General Nursing and B.Sc Nursing Programme, who had undergone midwifery examination. A semi structured questionnaire with self report technique method was used. Results: 20.57% and 89.1% students respectively felt that, thetheory input and allotted clinical hours were adequate. During the clinical posting, 29.7% felt that they did not get the opportunity to work in midwifery sections. 33.1% students expressed that they did not get cases as per the requirement prescribed by Indian NursingCouncil.13.7% and 33.7% students respectively agreed that they lacked confidence to perform abdominal palpation of antenatal cases & conduct deliveries independently. A few (26.2%) expressed their inability to resuscitate the newborn. 89.1% said that they needed more experience to work independently as midwives. Everyone felt the need of in-service education and majority (77.2%) felt that its duration should be either three months or more. Conclusion: Present study reveals that only 7% of the prospective nurses are ready to work in midwifery section. Only 13.7% of the prospective nurses are ready to work in rural area. Since there is a shortfall of 70.02% forspeciality of obstetrics and gynecology in rural health (GOI, 1997), and there are only 40 qualified nurse midwives per 100,000 births inIndia or only one midwife for 2500 births in rural areas, it is imperative to strengthen midwifery training to bridge this gap

Cytological diagnosis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis with cutaneous involvement

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease affecting predominantly children. The course of the disease varies, from spontaneous resolution to a progressive multisystem disorder with organ dysfunction and potential life-threatening complications. Diagnosis of LCH is often difficult and may be delayed because of its rarity and especially so if it occurs with unusual presentation. Fine needle aspiration cytology of a 4 year old male child, a case of LCH is presented with a purpose of highlighting the characteristic cytological features. A high index of suspicion, awareness of characteristic cytological features of LCH and its differential diagnoses is necessary. This can obviate the need of biopsy and electron microscopy. Immunohistochemistry if available can be performed on cytology smear and cell block

Green's Function Method for an Axisymmetric Void Between Parallel Walls

The Green's function for potential theory is developed for an axisymmetric void of arbitrary shape located between two parallel walls. Numerical results are given to demonstrate the accuracy in the Green's function formulation by comparison with numerical solutions obtained using a commercial finite element code. The present formulation is attractive since numerical implementation only involves unknowns on the surface of the void

Fabrication of stamps for microcontact printing by injection molding

Microcontact printing has been shown to be a viable lithographic technique for the fabrication of a variety of microelectronic components, including source/drain and gate electrodes for organic field effect transistors. Future manufacturing efforts may require a means of mass producing stamps for this process. In the present work, stamps for microcontact printing were rapidly produced by injection molding a commercial polyurethane resin, using a silicon master as the mold insert. The performance of these stamps was evaluated by microcontact printing gold coated silicon surfaces with a fluorinated alkanethiol. Etching of the stamped surface protected by the patterned alkanethiol revealed excellent replication of the submicron linear features of the micromold. The use of injection molding as a standard method for the production of stamps for microcontact printing is proposed and may have advantages for future nanotechnology applications that require mass production of stamps. Because a wide range of polymers may be injection molded, this method may make possible the fabrication of stamps with improved mechanical and chemical properties compared to polydimethylsiloxane based stamps

Facile auto-flash-combustion synthesis and characterization of visible-light-driven photocatalytic active Mn (II, III) loaded NiO nanoparticles

The opto-photocatalytic applications of Mn-doped NiO nanoparticles (NPs) are discussed. A facile synthesis of NiO doped with different Mn contents is performed and studied using experimental techniques. The structural properties and microstructural parameters of Mn:NiO NPs were examined by X-ray diffraction patterns. The average crystallite sizes of the pure NiO and 1.0-, 2.5-, 5.0-, 10-wt.% Mn-doped NiO NPs were found to be 25–19 nm by Williamson–Hall plots and 23–18 nm by the Debye–Scherer method. The crystallite size decreases with increasing doping concentration in the NiO host lattice. The optical bandgaps are found to be 3.53, 3.46, 3.39, 3.24, and 3.12 eV for pure NiO and 1.0-, 2.5-, 5.0-, and 10-wt.% Mn:NiO NPs, respectively, using the Kubelka–Munk function. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra of 2.5-wt.% Mn:NiO NPs were recorded for Mn, Ni, and O to determine the oxidation states. The photocatalytic performances of pure NiO and Mn:NiO NPs are examined. The 2.5-wt.% Mn:NPs exhibit the best photocatalytic performance owing to the greatest activation sites. The mechanism of the photocatalytic decolorization reaction is also investigated. The results demonstrate the high ability of Mn:NiO NPs as photocatalysts for methylene blue dye degradation, with 92% removal