Indications and trends of caesarean birth delivery in the current practice scenario

Background: Objective of current study was to analyze incidence, indications and trends of cesarean birth delivery in our environment.Methods: A prospective study of the cesarean sections performed at V.S. general teaching hospital in Ahmedabad from January 2008 to December 2013Results: Out of 28,411 total deliveries, 11629 women underwent CS. Each year the CS rate, above 40%, was relatively constant. 72.46% patients were within 20-29 years of age group. 39% patients were from middle to higher socio-economic class. CS in emergency patient was consistently more than 50% and in registered patient around 40%. Maternal indications for CS were twice common to fetal indications. Previous CS and fetal distress were the commonest among maternal and fetal indications respectively. Overall maternal morbidity in CS ranged from 8-10%, commonest being blood transfusion and wound infection. Neonatal morbidity was less than half and neonatal mortality was almost one third in comparison to normal delivery. Rising CS trend was noted in patients with previous CS, fetal distress, oligohydramnios and failed induction. Gradual but constant decline in CS rate was noted among emergency patients, patient with CPD, obstructed labor and PROM.Conclusions: Although to some extent higher CS rate is justifiable due to remarkable reduction in neonatal mortality and morbidity in high risk patients; the CS rate in our environment is still three times higher than WHO recommendation. In controlled environment with experienced staff, careful selection of patients for normal delivery among patients with previous CS, breech presentation and scientific induction of labor may satisfy our concern for mother and newborn safety while keeping the CS rate low

PCA Encrypted Short Acoustic Data Inculcated in Digital Color Images

We propose develop a generalized algorithm for hiding audio signal using image steganography. The authors suggest transmitting short audio messages camouflaged in digital images using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as an encryption technique. The quantum of principal components required to represent the audio signal by removing the redundancies is a measure of the magnitude of the Eigen values. The aforementioned technique follows a dual task of encryption and in turn also compresses the audio data, sufficient enough to be buried in the image. A 57Kb audio signal is decipher from the Stego image with a high PSNR of 47.49 and a correspondingly low mse of 3.3266 × 1

Development of a Time Efficient Protocol for Cross-Limb Comparisons of Muscle Mitochondrial Capacity Using NIRS

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The UK stand together trial: protocol for a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of KiVa to reduce bullying in primary schools

Background Reducing bullying is a public health priority. KiVa, a school-based anti-bullying programme, is effective in reducing bullying in Finland and requires rigorous testing in other countries, including the UK. This trial aims to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of KiVa in reducing child reported bullying in UK schools compared to usual practice. The trial is currently on-going. Recruitment commenced in October 2019, however due to COVID-19 pandemic and resulting school closures was re-started in October 2020. Methods Design: Two-arm pragmatic multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial with an embedded process and cost-effectiveness evaluation. Participants: 116 primary schools from four areas; North Wales, West Midlands, South East and South West England. Outcomes will be assessed at student level (ages 7–11 years; n = approximately 13,000 students). Intervention: KiVa is a whole school programme with universal actions that places a strong emphasis on changing bystander behaviour alongside indicated actions that provide consistent strategies for dealing with incidents of bullying. KiVa will be implemented over one academic year. Comparator: Usual practice. Primary outcome: Student-level bullying-victimisation assessed through self-report using the extensively used and validated Olweus Bully/Victim questionnaire at baseline and 12-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes: student-level bullying-perpetration; student mental health and emotional well-being; student level of, and roles in, bullying; school related well-being; school attendance and academic attainment; and teachers’ self-efficacy in dealing with bullying, mental well-being, and burnout. Sample size: 116 schools (58 per arm) with an assumed ICC of 0.02 will provide 90% power to identify a relative reduction of 22% with a 5% significance level. Randomisation: recruited schools will be randomised on 1:1 basis stratified by Key-Stage 2 size and free school meal status. Process evaluation: assess implementation fidelity, identify influences on KiVa implementation, and examine intervention mechanisms. Economic evaluation: Self-reported victimisation, Child Health Utility 9D, Client Service Receipt Inventory, frequency of services used, and intervention costs. The health economic analysis will be conducted from a schools and societal perspective. Discussion This two-arm pragmatic multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial will evaluate the KiVa anti-bullying intervention to generate evidence of the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and scalability of the programme in the UK. Our integrated process evaluation will assess implementation fidelity, identify influences on KiVa implementation across England and Wales and examine intervention mechanisms. The integrated health economic analysis will be conducted from a schools and societal perspective. Our trial will also provide evidence regarding the programme impact on inequalities by testing whether KiVa is effective across the socio-economic gradient

Signals in the Soil: An Introduction to Wireless Underground Communications

In this chapter, wireless underground (UG) communications are introduced. A detailed overview of WUC is given. A comprehensive review of research challenges in WUC is presented. The evolution of underground wireless is also discussed. Moreover, different component of UG communications is wireless. The WUC system architecture is explained with a detailed discussion of the anatomy of an underground mote. The examples of UG wireless communication systems are explored. Furthermore, the differences of UG wireless and over-the-air wireless are debated. Different types of wireless underground channel (e.g., In-Soil, Soil-to-Air, and Air-to-Soil) are reported as well

Cancer cells express aberrant DNMT3B transcripts encoding truncated proteins

Muslim societies are confronted with the problem of conciliation between 'permanence' as taught by religious tradition and 'changes' as imposed by modernization. One facet of modernization of the Muslim world is habitat. This term encompasses all human creations and starts from the fundamental need to inhabit. This latter is manifest at various levels, ranging from house to city

Multiple intracranial cavernous angiomas: A rare case series

Cavernous angiomas are cerebral cavernous malformations and they are relatively rare lesions. Two forms of cavernous angiomas have been described: a sporadic form, in which patients usually have a single lesion, and a familial form, the hallmarks of which are multiple lesions and autosomal dominant transmission. The familial form appears to be very uncommon and has mainly been described in the Hispanic population. We report two cases of multiple intracranial cavernous angiomas which is an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. It is very rare to find this in non Hispanic population

'Inject-Mix-React-Separate-and-Quantitate' (IMReSQ) method for screening enzyme inhibitors

Many regulatory enzymes are considered attractive therapeutic targets, and their inhibitors are potential drug candidates. Screening combinatorial libraries for enzyme inhibitors is pivotal to identifying hit compounds for the development of drugs targeting regulatory enzymes. Here, we introduce the first inhibitor screening method that consumes only nanoliters of the reactant solutions and is applicable to regulatory enzymes. The method is termed inject-mix-react-separate-and-quantitate (IMReSQ) and includes five steps. First, nanoliter volumes of substrate, candidate inhibitor, and enzyme solutions are injected by pressure into a capillary as separate plugs. Second, the plugs are mixed inside this capillary microreactor by transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles. Third, the reaction mixture is incubated to form the enzymatic product. Fourth, the product is separated from the substrate inside the capillary by electrophoresis. Fifth, the amounts of the product and substrate are quantitated. In this proof-of-principle work, we applied IMReSQ to study inhibition of recently cloned protein farnesyltransferase from parasite Entamoeba histolytica. This enzyme is a potential therapeutic target for antiparasitic drugs. We identified three previously unknown inhibitors of this enzyme and proved that IMReSQ could be used for quantitatively ranking the potencies of inhibitors