Immediate induction of labor in premature rupture of membranes at term (PROMT)-vaginal Misoprostol tablet versus PGE2 gel: a randomized comparative study

Background: The aim of the study is to compare immediate induction with vaginal misoprostol tablet and immediate induction with vaginal PGE2 gel in women with premature rupture of membranes at term (PROMT).Methods: Nine hundred thirty-two women with PROM at term were assigned randomly to receive intravaginal 25μg misoprostol tablet, 4 hourly with a maximum of 5 doses or 0.5 mg vaginal PGE2 gel 6 hourly with a maximum of 2 doses. The primary outcome measures were cesarean section rate, admission to delivery interval and induction to delivery interval. Secondary outcomes included, mode of delivery, and maternal and neonatal safety outcome. Results were calculated applying Fisher Exact Test, Chi square test, t test and calculating the P-value using an alpha level of 0.05 for Type I error.Results: The mean time from admission to delivery was 13.16 hours in the misoprostol group and 13.56 hours in the PGE2 group (P= 0.3014). Induction to delivery interval was also comparable between the groups (10.23 h versus 10.18 h).Caesarean section rate did not differ significantly between groups (12.13% versus 15.74% ,P=0.135 RR 0.783 95% CI 0.568-1.079).More women in misoprostol group had instrumental delivery (7.57% versus 4.25%, P=0.031, RR 1.089 95% CI 1.04-3.03).The  neonatal outcomes were comparable between the groups . Maternal outcomes were not significantly different except incidence of analgesic use (P=0.009 RR 1.62 95% CI 1.03-1.30), meconium stained liquor (P=.0096 RR 2.03 CI 1.17-3.53) and   number of digital vaginal examinations (P<.0001) in misoprostol group.Conclusions: Vaginal misoprostol is equally efficacious in labor induction and demonstrates a similar fetal and maternal safety profile to PGE2 gel

Frother Characterization with Two-Phase Foam System

This paper evaluates frother performance by studying two-phase gas-liquid system. Surface tension, foamability, foam stability and bubble size distribution are measured as a function of ft-other type, frother dosage, and sol-ution pH. Variation of bubble size with respect to frother concentration is used for predicting the critical coale-scence concentration (CCC) of selected alcohol and poly-glycol ether family frothers. An inverse relationship is found between critical coalescence concentration and dynamic foamability index (DFI). Df-1012 and PPG are found to be more powerful in terms of stability, foamability and CCC than frothers belonging to alcohol family. Frother effectiveness is found to be relatively better in alkaline pH

Analysis of the causes of maternal death in eclampsia

Abstract: Objective: To analyze the causes of maternal death in eclamptic mothers. Materials and method: The study was conducted over a period of one year 1.1.2012-31.12.201

A Rare HBV Subgenotype D4 with Unique Genomic Signatures Identified in North-Eastern India –An Emerging Clinical Challenge?

BACKGROUND/AIMS: HBV has been classified into ten genotypes (A-J) and multiple subgenotypes, some of which strongly influence disease outcome and their distribution also correlate with human migration. HBV infection is highly prevalent in India and its diverse population provides an excellent opportunity to study the distinctiveness of HBV, its evolution and disease biology in variegated ethnic groups. The North-East India, having international frontiers on three sides, is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse region of the country. Given the paucity of information on molecular epidemiology of HBV in this region, the study aimed to carry out an in-depth genetic characterization of HBV prevailing in North-East state of Tripura. METHODS: From sera of chronically HBV infected patients biochemical/serological tests, HBV DNA quantification, PCR-amplification, sequencing of PreS/S or full-length HBV genomes were done. HBV genotype/subgenotype determination and sequence variability were assessed by MEGA5-software. The evolutionary divergence times of different HBV subgenotypes were estimated by DNAMLK/PHYLIP program while jpHMM method was used to detect any recombination event in HBV genomes. RESULTS: HBV genotypes D (89.5%), C (6.6%) and A (3.9%) were detected among chronic carriers. While all HBV/A and HBV/C isolates belonged to subgenotype-A1 and C1 respectively, five subgenotypes of HBV/D (D1-D5) were identified including the first detection of rare D4. These non-recombinant Indian D4 (IndD4) formed a distinct phylogenetic clade, had 2.7% nucleotide divergence and recent evolutionary radiation than other global D4. Ten unique amino acids and 9 novel nucleotide substitutions were identified as IndD4 signatures. All IndD4 carried T120 and R129 in ORF-S that may cause immune/vaccine/diagnostic escape and N128 in ORF-P, implicated as compensatory Lamivudine resistance mutation. CONCLUSIONS: IndD4 has potential to undermine vaccination programs or anti-viral therapy and its introduction to North-East India is believed to be linked with the settlement of ancient Tibeto-Burman migrants from East-Asia

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Who Needs Bankruptcy Law?

This essay summarizes four papers: “Bargaining Around Bankruptcy: Small Business Distress and State Law,” 38 Journal of Legal Studies 255 (2009); “Bankruptcy’s Rarity: An Essay on Small Business Bankruptcy in the United States,” 5 European Company & Financial Law Review 172 (2008); “Small Business Bankruptcy and the Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act of 2005,” A Report to the United States Small Business Administration (2007); and Douglas G. Baird & Edward R. Morrison, “Serial Entrepreneurs and Small Business Bankruptcies,” 105 Columbia Law Review 2310 (2005)

A Gendered Approach to Awareness of Climate-resilient Agricultural Practices

Over the years climate change has become a global issue and its impact on agriculture has a distressful effect on the production of food grains and the lives of the growers. Therefore, in this fast-evolving world being aware of the rapid changes has become the necessity of the hour. And keeping in view the present condition this study had been conducted in the Ganjam District of Odisha to understand the extent of awareness of Climate Resilient Agricultural Practices. A total of 200 male and female respondents,100 each respectively were selected for the study. The findings revealed that most of the respondents i.e. 68.00 per cent male and 64.00 per cent female were partially aware, though it is also seen that (20.00%) female and (13.00%) male was unaware of climate-resilient agricultural practices which is evident that more females are unaware regarding the issues. Further, it was observed that Education, Information Source Utilization, Land Holding, and Type of family have a significant and positive relationship with the awareness of female respondents. The findings of this research would focus on creating more awareness among the people regarding the impacts of climate change and the benefits of adopting climate-resilient agricultural practices

Synthesis, characterization and properties of mono-, di- and polynuclear nickel(II) pseudohalide complexes containing bidentate Schiff bases. X-ray structure of [Ni(Ni,Np)₂(NCS)₂] [Ni,Np = N-((pyridin-2-yl)benzylidene) benzylamine]

9-17Three different types of nickel(II) pseudohalide compounds, [Ni(Ni,Np)₂(X)₂] [Ni,Np = N-((pyridin-2-yl)benzylidene) benzylamine; X = N₃⁻, 1; X = NCS⁻, 2; X = NCO-, 3], [Ni(Ni,Np)₂(X)]₂(Y)₂ [X = N₃⁻, Y = ClO4⁻, 4; X = N₃⁻, Y = PF6⁻, 5; X = NCO⁻, X = ClO4⁻, 6; X = NCO⁻, Y = PF6⁻, 7] and [Ni(Ni,Np)(N₃)2]n (8) have been prepared and characterized using microanalytical, spectroscopic and other physicochemical results. Single crystal X-ray study of one of the mononuclear compounds, [Ni(Ni,Np)₂(NCS)₂] (2) has been done. Structural analysis reveals that the metal center in 2 adopts a distorted octahedral geometry with an NiN6 chromophore coordinated through four N atoms of two bidentate L units and two N atoms of terminal thiocyanate in mutual cis orientation. The mononuclear units in 2 are engaged in intermolecular weak C-H…S hydrogen bonding to give a 1D chain. Electrochemical electron transfer study reveals nearly-reversible responses to NiIII/NiII couple in acetontrile solutions. High-energy intraligand 1(π-π *) fluorescence at room temperature and intraligand ³ (π-π*) phosphorescence in glassy solutions (MeOH at 77 K) are seen in all the complexes

Appraisal of pollution and health risks associated with coal mine contaminated soil using multimodal statistical and Fuzzy-TOPSIS approaches

The present study assesses the concentration, probabilistic risk, source classification, and dietary risk arising from heavy metal (HMs) pollution in agricultural soils affected by coal mining in eastern partof India. Analyses of soil and rice plant indicated significantly elevated levels of HMs beyond the permissible limit in the contaminated zones (zone 1: PbSoil: 108.24 ± 72.97, CuSoil: 57.26 ± 23.91, CdSoil: 8.44 ± 2.76, CrSoil: 180.05 ± 46.90, NiSoil: 70.79 ± 25.06 mg/kg; PbGrain: 0.96 ± 0.8, CuGrain: 8.6 ± 5.1, CdGrain: 0.65 ± 0.42, CrGrain: 4.78 ± 1.89, NiGrain: 11.74 ± 4.38 mg/kg. zone 2: PbSoil: 139.56 ±69.46, CuSoil: 69.89 ± 19.86, CdSoil: 8.95 ± 2.57, CrSoil: 245.46 ± 70.66, NiSoil: 95.46 ± 22.89 mg/kg; PbGrain: 1.27 ± 0.84, CuGrain: 7.9 ± 4.57, CdGrain: 0.76 ± 0.43, CrGrain: 8.6 ± 1.58, NiGrain: 11.50 ±2.46 mg/kg) compared to the uncontaminated zone (zone 3). Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenichealth risks were computed based on the HMs concentration in the soil and rice grain, with Pb, Cr, andNi identified as posing a high risk to human health. Monte Carlo simulation, the solubility-free ionactivity model (FIAM), and severity adjusted margin of exposure (SAMOE) were employed to predicthealth risk. FIAM hazard quotient (HQ) values for Ni, Cr, Cd, and Pb were > 1, indicating asignificant non-carcinogenic risk. SAMOE (risk thermometer) results for contaminated zones rangedfrom low to moderate risk (CrSAMOE: 0.05, and NiSAMOE: 0.03). Fuzzy-TOPSIS and variableimportance plots (from random forest) showed that Ni and Cr were mostly responsible for the toxicityin the rice plant, respectively. A self-organizing map for source classification revealed common originfor the studied HMs with zone 2 exhibiting the highest contamination. The positive matrixfactorization model for the source apportionment identified coal mining and transportation as thepredominant sources of HMs. Spatial distribution analysis indicated higher contamination near miningsites as compared to distant sampling sites. Consequently, this study will aid environmental scientistsand policymakers controlling HM pollution in agricultural soils near coal mines