Changing trends of cesarean section using Robson’s Ten-group classification in tertiary centre: a retrospective study

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the CS rates at a tertiary care medical college setting centre which has a high referral rate of complicated pregnancies and make analysis based on the 10-group classification.Methods: This is a retrospective study carried out department obstetrics and gynecology of a tertiary care medical college hospital in Mangalore and includes all deliveries over a period of five years from Jan 14 to Dec 2018 and it was compared with the c-section from January 2007 to December 2011.Results: The overall CS (cesarean section) during the period 2014-18 was 31.85 which were significantly greater then 2007-11 period (20.59%). The main contributing groups to the overall CS rate were the previous CS (Group 5) and Primigravida groups, (Groups 1 and 2) 80%.Conclusions: It is important that efforts to reduce the overall CS rate should focus on reducing the primary CS rate. The application of Robson’s Ten-group classification (TGCS) in centre has helped to identify the main groups of subjects who had the overall maximum CSR

An experimental study to investigate the effects of venlafaxine and escitalopram on anticonvulsant activity of conventional antiepileptic drugs in mice

Background: Depression is a common psychiatric comorbidity in patients with epilepsy which remains often untreated, due to concern of antidepressant induced seizures. The safety status of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in epileptics is controversial.Methods: Phase I acute effect of venlafaxine and escitalopram on the seizure threshold was studied. Phase II, the acute effects of test ADDs on the effective dose of AEDs viz valproate, phenobarbitone and phenytoin were studied in maximal electroshock (MES). Phase III- same study design as in phase II except that AEDs and ADDs were administered daily for 28 days.Results: Venlafaxine raised the electroconvulsive threshold in a dose dependant manner in phase I, however it was significant at a dose of 25mg/kg. In phase II, a significant reduction in ED50 of valproate was observed when it was co-administered with venlafaxine at dose of 12.5 and 25mg/kg, whereas ED50 of phenobarbitone was significantly reduced at a dose of 25mg/kg. Chronic administration of venlafaxine at 12.5mg/kg daily reduced ED50 of valproate. At 25mg/kg daily ED50 of all the three studied AEDs was reduced, Escitalopram 8mg/kg significantly raised the electroconvulsive threshold value in phase 1, Escitalopram administered in the dose of 8mg/kg reduced the ed50 value of valproate. Escitalopram given in dose of 4 and 8mg/kg reduced the ED50 value of valproate.Conclusions: From this finding, it may be concluded that venlafaxine and escitalopram administered either alone or in combination with AEDs acutely or chronically, exhibit anticonvulsant action

Preliminary Estimators of Population Mean using Ranked Set Sampling in the Presence of Measurement Error and Non-Response Error

In order to estimate the population mean in the presence of both non-response and measurement errors that are uncorrelated, the paper presents some novel estimators employing ranked set sampling by utilizing auxiliary information.Up to the first order of approximation, the equations for the bias and mean squared error of the suggested estimators are produced, and it is found that the proposed estimators outperform the other existing estimators analysed in this study. Investigations using simulation studies and numerical examples show how well the suggested estimators perform in the presence of measurement and non-response errors. The relative efficiency of the suggested estimators compared to the existing estimators has been expressed as a percentage, and the impact of measurement errors has been expressed as a percentage computation of measurement errors.Comment: 16 pages, 3 table

Prisoners’ Conjugal Visitation Rights in India: Changing Perspectives

Right of conjugal visitation remains an old debate which has resurged recently with the Jasvir Singh decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The international community is divided over the boons and banes of such a benefit being extended to convicts. Some construe it as a privilege; the recent trends argue that the same is an extension of our basic human rights, constitutionally enshrined as being inherently ‘fundamental’ and hence sacrosanct. With the modern penal systems across the globe embracing the Reformative Theory of punishment, the idea that a criminal is a product of the social, economic and environmental conditions is increasingly gaining acceptance. By that logic, a better way to humanize the social ecology within the four walls of the prison and to reform that individual is by allowing conjugal visitation. The article is primarily a stakeholder analysis of the problem, the key stakeholders being the prisoner, his/her spouse, the correctional department and the society. It will further discuss the possible benefits and the setbacks of conjugal visitation, the varied international stance and India’s take on the issue in light of the Jasvir Singh judgement. Finally, a determination will be attempted as to whether such a correctional provision is a right arising out of a broad interpretation of Article 21 of our Constitution

Seasonal Prevalence and Anopheline Mosquito Fauna of Distt. Dehradun (Uttarakhand), India

A study on the seasonal prevalence and faunal diversity of anophelines was investigated at six selected localities of Distt Dehra Dun between January, 2008 to December, 2009. A total of 8403 specimens of anophelines were collected, which belongs to 11 species. The most abundant species was An. subpictus (22.35%) followed by An. culicifacies (20.08%), An. stephensi (10.41%) and An. annularis (9.37%) respectively. While the An. gigas (1.20%) was recorded in least number. The density of anophelines starts to increase in summer season and peaked in rainy season and least in winter season, it was due to more availability of breeding sites in rainy season