Labour outcomes in advanced maternal age

Background: Advanced maternal age has been traditionally defined as age >35 years at delivery, although some authors have used the age limits 40and even 44 years.Regardless of what is the cutoff for advanced maternal age, pregnancies in women aged >35 years are considered at risk of both obstetric complications and interventions.Methods: Study design: retrospective study. The present study is a type of research article which was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, Cama Hospital, Mumbai from October 2021 to January 2022, 50 postnatal mothers with age more than or equal to 35 were selected.Results: About 50 women participated in this study and most of them belonged between the age group of 30-35 years of age. Most of the women were multipara. Most of them had postpartum hemorrhage as the most common post-delivery complication.Conclusions: Early ANC registration, regular ANC visits and adequate intrapartum fetal surveillance is essential to prevent adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes in advanced maternal age.

Diagnostic accuracy of TB-LAMP for pulmonary tuberculosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND:The need for a rapid, molecular test to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) has prompted exploration of TB-LAMP (Eiken; Tokyo, Japan) for use in resource-limited settings. We conducted a systematic review to assess the accuracy of TB-LAMP as a diagnostic test for pulmonary TB. METHODS:We analyzed individual-level data for eligible patients from all studies of TB-LAMP conducted between Jan 2012 and October 2015 to compare the diagnostic accuracy of TB-LAMP with that of smear microscopy and Xpert MTB/RIF® using 3 reference standards of varying stringency. Pooled sensitivity and specificity and pooled differences in sensitivity and specificity were estimated using random effects meta-analysis. Study quality was evaluated using QUADAS-2. RESULTS:Four thousand seven hundred sixty individuals across 13 studies met eligibility criteria. Methodological quality was judged to be low for all studies. TB-LAMP had higher sensitivity than sputum smear microscopy (pooled sensitivity difference + 13·2, 95% CI 4·5-21·9%) and similar sensitivity to Xpert MTB/RIF (pooled sensitivity difference - 2·5, 95% CI -8·0 to + 2·9) using the most stringent reference standard available. Specificity of TB-LAMP was similar to that of sputum smear microscopy (pooled specificity difference - 1·8, 95% CI -3·8 to + 0·2) and Xpert MTB/RIF (pooled specificity difference 0·5, 95% CI -0·9 to + 1·8). CONCLUSIONS:From the perspective of diagnostic accuracy, TB-LAMP may be considered as an alternative test for sputum smear microscopy. Additional factors such as cost, feasibility, and acceptability in settings that continue to rely on sputum smear microscopy should be considered when deciding to adopt this technology. Xpert MTB/RIF should continue to be preferred in settings where resource and infrastructure requirements are adequate and where HIV co-infection or drug-resistance is of concern

STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOR OF HYBRID FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM USING STEEL AND POLYVINYL ALCOHOL FIBER

           Fiber reinforcement is commonly used to provide toughness and ductility to cementitious matrix which is brittle in nature. Reinforcement of concrete with a single type of fiber may improve the desired properties of a composites to a limited level, whereas hybrid fiber is a combination of two or more types of fibers which are rationally combined to produce a composite that derives high benefits and exhibits a synergetic response. The aim of this investigation is to determine the addition of optimum dosage level of fibre in concrete. By having the optimum dosage level, beams are casted to determine the structural behaviour of HFRC. The hybrid fibers used are Steel Fiber (Crimped) in shape and PolyVinyl Alcohol Fiber. HFRC specimens are casted for 1% volume fraction. As a result of this investigation the structural performance such as ductility factor, stiffness and energy absorption capacity has significant improvement compared to conventional concrete

Screening of alcohol de-addiction potential of zinc: a study on albino rats

Background: With regard to tobacco and alcohol addiction, involvement of NMDA receptors and glutamate as neurotransmitter has been highlighted. Few indirect evidences support possible de-addiction potential of zinc being mediated through their interaction with nicotinic and NMDA receptors. The objectives of the present study were planned to analyze the alcohol de-addiction potential of oral zinc sulfate as a monotherapy and as a supplement to topiramate, in male wistar albino rats.Methods: Male wistar albino rats were exposed to ‘two-bottle free choice’ model of voluntary ethanol consumption, wherein each animal had access to water and 10% v/v ethyl alcohol in two separate bottles. Thirty male rats divided into five groups, each containing six rats were treated as control group, receiving 1ml/kg/d distilled water orally; zinc sulfate group receiving 18mg/kg/d of elemental zinc orally; topiramate group receiving topiramate 5mg/kg/d, orally and Topiaramate plus Zinc sulfate group receiving both zinc sulfate (18mg/kg/d) and topiramate (5mg/kg/d) orally for two weeks.Results: There were no significant differences with regard to all the three parameters in two-way ANOVA. However, there were significant differences with regard to amount of alcohol and water consumed but not API, in all the treatment groups in post-hoc test.Conclusions: It is unclear on to the alcohol de-addiction potential of zinc as monotherapy and combination therapy with topiramate

Ab initio Wannier-function-based correlated calculations of Born effective charges of crystalline Li2_{2}O and LiCl

In this paper we have used our recently developed ab initio Wannier-function-based methodology to perform extensive Hartree-Fock and correlated calculations on Li$_{2}$O and LiCl to compute their Born effective charges. Results thus obtained are in very good agreement with the experiments. In particular, for the case of Li$_{2}$O, we resolve a controversy originating in the experiment of Osaka and Shindo {[}Solid State Commun. 51 (1984) 421] who had predicted the effective charge of Li ions to be in the range 0.58--0.61, a value much smaller compared to its nominal value of unity, thereby, suggesting that the bonding in the material could be partially covalent. We demonstrate that effective charge computed by Osaka and Shindo is the Szigeti charge, and once the Born charge is computed, it is in excellent agreement with our computed value. Mulliken population analysis of Li$_{2}$O also confirms ionic nature of the bonding in the substance.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Phys. Rev. B (Feb 2008