Study of correlation between age of menarche and body mass index in adolescent

Background: Younger age at menarche is associated with higher body mass index (BMI) for adolescents. Obesity has a strong association with infertility and menstrual irregularities. Higher BMI at menarche is associated with an earlier occurrence of menarche.  The timing of menarche was associated with the BMI, waist circumference, thickness of skin fold, but more strongly so with the BMI.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Durgapur (West Bengal), where total 600 adolescent girls aged 12-17 years from DAV Model School, Durgapur and GMPS High School, Durgapur were selected.Results: In studied girls, maximum girls 267 (44.5%) attained menarche at age of 13 years. 129 girls (21.5%) had menarche at age of 12 years. 87 girls (14.5%) had menarche at age of 11 years. 77 girls (12.8%) had menarche at age of 14 years. 39 girls (6.5%) had menarche at age of 15 years. Only 1 girl (0.2%) had menarche at age of 10 years. 119 girls with BMI of 25 kg/m2 had mean age of menarche 12.60±1.07 years.Conclusions: Mean age of menarche in adolescent girls was 12.75±1.06 year. Mean BMI was found 21.6±3.64 kg/m2. High BMI girls had earlier menarche, comparatively to normal BMI girls and underweight girls

Study of menstrual disorders and its correlation with BMI in adolescents

Background: Due to change in lifestyle, habits, diet, the prevalence of obesity has increased. Excess weight and obesity are associated with irregular menstrual cycles, which reduce fertility and increase hormone-sensitive cancers. Obesity is considered to cause abnormality of sex steroid hormone balance. Irregular menstruation is more frequently observed in women who became obese during puberty than in those who were obese during infancy. Obesity has a strong association with infertility and menstrual irregularities. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Durgapur (West Bengal), where total 600 adolescent girls aged 12-17 years from DAV Model School, Durgapur and GMPS High School, Durgapur were selected. Results: Out of total 600 girls, 119 girls (19.8%) had BMI<18.5 kg/m2, 357 girls (59.5%) had BMI between 18.5-24.99 kg/m2 and 124 girls (20.7%) had BMI>25 kg/m2. Only 68 girls (57.1%) with less BMI, 205 girls (57.4%) with normal BMI and 62 girls (50%) with BMI>25 kg/m2 had dysmenorrhoea. Only 19 girls (16%) with less BMI, 46 girls (12.9%) with normal BMI and only 15 girls (12.1%) with higher BMI had menorrhagia. Only 4 girls (3.4%) with less BMI, 14 girls (3.9%) with normal BMI and 12 girls (9.7%) with high BMI had hypomenorrhoea. Only 10 girls (8.4%) with less BMI, 37 girls (10.4%) with normal BMI and only 28 girls (22.5%) with high BMI had irregular cycles. Only 5 girls (4.2%) with less BMI, 12 girls (3.4%) with normal BMI and only 11 girls (8.9%) with high BMI had oligomenorrhoea. Only 2 girls (1.7%) with less BMI, 3 girls (0.8%) with normal BMI and only 4 girls (3.2%) with higher BMI had polymenorrhoea. Only 43 underweight girls (36.1%), 166 girls (46.5%) with normal BMI and 68 girls (54.8%) with higher BMI had premenstrual symptoms. Conclusions: Mean BMI was found 21.6±3.64 kg/m2. High BMI girls had more oligomenorrhoea, hypomenorrhoea, irregular menstrual cycles, polymenorrhoea, premenstrual symptoms and less dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia comparatively to normal BMI girls and underweight girls.

Editorial: Molecular Diagnostics in the Detection of Neurodegenerative Disorders

Neurodegeneration is characterized by the progressive loss of neural tissue that result in various neurodegeneration-initiated cerebral failures and complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease. All these medical conditions are accompanied by the disruption of blood-brain barrier (BBB). The BBB is an interface, separating the brain from the circulatory system and protecting the central nervous system from potentially harmful chemicals while regulating transport of essential molecules and maintaining a stable environment. Owing to the inability of the neurons to regenerate on their own after neurodegeneration or severe damage to the neural tissue, neurodegenerative disorders do not have natural cures on their own. Neuroregeneration is a viable way to curb neurodegeneration. One of the current approaches is stem cell-based therapy that has been shown to be potentially helpful for the application of neuronal cell replacement for neuroregeneration. It is vital that the neurodegenerative disorder being detected at an early stage as it can provide a chance for treatment that may be helpful to prevent further progression of the fatal disease. Thus, research has focused on developing effective non-invasive diagnostic methods for early detection of these disorders. Molecular diagnostics can provide a powerful method to detect and diagnose various neurological disorders. Such diagnosis can enhance early detection, provide subsequent medical counsel based on medical pathway, as well as to gain better insight of neurogenesis and hopefully eventual cure of the neurodegenerative diseases. With research reports, reviews, mini-reviews and commentary, this research topic covers a wide range of areas in neurodegeneration research, including diagnosis and prognosis; regulating central nervous system; biomarkers and brain injury induced neurobehavioral outcomes among other timely reports on neurodegeneration

The role of forceps in current obstetrics: a retrospective study

Background: Forceps has been an integral part of the obstetrician’s armamentarium. Obstetric forceps was designed to assist extraction of the fetal head and thereby accomplish the delivery of the fetus. In this present day when there is universal concern regarding the alarming rise of cesarean section rates, a better understanding of this instrument will help the patient as well as the obstetrician. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study done over a two-year period. Cases were enrolled in the study after satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All data compared in terms of age, parity, gestational age, indications, maternal and neonatal outcome. Results: A total of 1150 antenatal cases were delivered out of which 42 cases were delivered by outlet forceps. Incidence of outlet forceps was 3.75%. Mean baby birth weight was 3.07 kg. No maternal mortality and morbidity recorded. Conclusions: Obstetric forceps have a significant place in modern obstetrics as it is a lifesaving procedure for mother and fetus in many situations

A study of impact of stress: examinations on menstrual cycle among medical students

Background: Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), a common problem among adolescent girls, is associated with various physical, mental and behavioral symptoms that lead to social and occupational impairment. Stress has also been hypothesized to be an important etiologic factor. Examination stress may also be responsible for affecting the premenstrual symptoms. The objectives of this study was to study the impact of exam stress on the menstrual cycle and the relationship of perceived stress with the severity of premenstrual symptoms. Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study conducted among female medical students of final MBBS, who were candidate of upcoming exams. They were assessed on semi structured socio-demographic and menstrual history proforma, ACOG guidelines, DSM-5 criteria, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Premenstrual Symptom Screening Tool (PSST).Results: As per ACOG guidelines, 66% participants had PMS and 6% participants had PMDD according to DSM-5 criteria. On PSST total 88% participants had premenstrual symptoms and out of them 58% had mild/no PMS while 30% had moderate to severe PMS. 5% participants also fulfilled criteria for PMDD on PSST. Stress was found to be mild in 26% and moderate in 74% participants on PSS. PMS was found in 93.75% participants who had painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea) and this association was statistically significant. Data wise 73.1% participants having mild stress had PMS, while 93.2% participants having moderate stress, had PMS and this association was found to be statistically significant.  Surprisingly not a single participant consulted to any health care provider for their menstruation related problems.Conclusions: Premenstrual Syndrome is common in adolescent girls and exam stress is an important etiological factor. PMS/PMDD was found significantly higher in participants who had dysmenorrhea and moderate stress. A positive and highly significant correlation was also found between the severity of stress and severity of premenstrual symptoms

Covid-19 Detection using qRT-PCR - A Review

In the ongoing Covid pandemic, the monitoring of SARSnCoV-2 with the help of viral loads/viral kinetics has become more essential via the RT-PCR technique. However, the interpretations of qRT-PCR technique results are made as qualitative and quantitative or semi-quantitative, and day by day, this interpretation is becoming more important. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction is the most widely used technique for detecting viruses (rRT-PCR). Due to probable false-negative or false-positive findings, present techniques must be improved to avoid incorrect conclusions. Researchers have developed a multiplex rRT-PCR diagnostic method that simultaneously targets viral genes (RdRP and E) and one human gene (RP). The values of the Cycle threshold called Ct values that are a result of the RT-PCR test are highly affected by the variations attained among the different runs required to be operated and must be determined by the laboratories, especially in the quality control of quantitative RT-PCR. Somewhere, batch effects also play an important role in Ct value. Regrettably, several papers on Covid-19 used ingenuous values for Ct from qRT-PCR, which are the incorrect quantitative analysis unit. Qualitative analysis and Quantitative analysis both are of having different meanings; interpretation of Ct values cannot be interpreted directly as viral load; it must need a reference material with standard curves. The tractability and validity of the standard curve are the basis of the evaluation of the values. These factors help attain the accurate quantification of the expected number of viral copies. &nbsp

A New Authenticated Encryption Technique for Handling Long Ciphertexts in Memory Constrained Devices

In authenticated encryption schemes, there are two techniques for handling long ciphertexts while working within the constraints of a low buffer size: Releasing unverified plaintext (RUP) or Producing intermediate tags (PIT). In this paper, in addition to the two techniques, we propose another way to handle a long ciphertext with a low buffer size by storing and releasing only one (generally, or only few) intermediate state without releasing or storing any part of an unverified plaintext and without need of generating any intermediate tag. In this paper we explain this generalized technique using our new construction sp-AELM. sp-AELM is a sponge based authenticated encryption scheme that provides support for limited memory devices. We also provide its security proof for privacy and authenticity in an ideal permutation model, using a code based game playing framework. Furthermore, we also present two more variants of sp-AELM that serve the same purpose and are more efficient than sp-AELM. The ongoing CAESAR competition has 9 submissions which are based on the Sponge construction. We apply our generalized technique of storing single intermediate state to all these submissions, to determine their suitability with a Crypto module having limited memory. Our findings show that only ASCON and one of the PRIMATE\u27s mode(namely GIBBON) satisify the limited memory constraint using this technique, while the remaining schemes (namely, Artemia, ICEPOLE, Ketje, Keyak, NORX, $\Pi$-cipher, STRIBOB and two of the PRIMATEs mode: APE \& HANUMAN) are not suitable for this scenario directly

Visual Dexterity: In-hand Dexterous Manipulation from Depth

In-hand object reorientation is necessary for performing many dexterous manipulation tasks, such as tool use in unstructured environments that remain beyond the reach of current robots. Prior works built reorientation systems that assume one or many of the following specific circumstances: reorienting only specific objects with simple shapes, limited range of reorientation, slow or quasistatic manipulation, the need for specialized and costly sensor suites, simulation-only results, and other constraints which make the system infeasible for real-world deployment. We overcome these limitations and present a general object reorientation controller that is trained using reinforcement learning in simulation and evaluated in the real world. Our system uses readings from a single commodity depth camera to dynamically reorient complex objects by any amount in real time. The controller generalizes to novel objects not used during training. It is successful in the most challenging test: the ability to reorient objects in the air held by a downward-facing hand that must counteract gravity during reorientation. The results demonstrate that the policy transfer from simulation to the real world can be accomplished even for dynamic and contact-rich tasks. Lastly, our hardware only uses open-source components that cost less than five thousand dollars. Such construction makes it possible to replicate the work and democratize future research in dexterous manipulation. Videos are available at: https://taochenshh.github.io/projects/visual-dexterity

Cu-Cu thermo compression wafer bonding techniques for micro-system integration

Copper (Cu) is used as an interconnect material in many applications owing to its high thermal, electrical conductivity and excellent electromigration resistance. Though this material has many advantages, the main drawback is that it gets oxidized on exposure to air. Thermo-compression bonding is a wafer bonding technique that uses metal layers for heaping wafers, which aids in attaining outstanding electrical conductivity without weakening the mechanical properties. The adsorbed oxide layer hurdles the proper bonding to happen between the wafers. In order to enhance the diffusion between the metal layers, the copper oxide layer should be removed which necessitates the requirement of high temperature, pressure, long bonding time and the inert gas atmosphere throughout the Cu-Cu thermo compression wafer bonding process. Simultaneous application of high temperature and pressure for a long time leads to the deterioration of the underlying sensitive components. This paper aims to present several techniques such as surface treatment, chemical pretreatment, surface passivation, crystal orientation modification, stress gradient in the thin film and formic acid vapour treatment which are used in order to avoid the deterioration of underlying sensitive devices and to obtain a proper bonding between the wafers at low temperature and pressure