Knowledge, attitude, and perception of HIV / AIDS among married women

Background: In India, the rising prevalence of HIV among pregnant women is of great concern. Pregnant women are much receptive on health matters. So, it is important to assess their knowledge, attitude and perception regarding HIV/AIDS. Aims: To know the knowledge and to know the various factors influencing the knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS in married women. Setting and design: The present community based cross sectional study was carried out in rural health training centre Ukkali, which belongs to department of community medicine, BLDE University’s Shri B.M. Patil medical college, Bijapur. Materials and methods: A total of 1182 married women, aged between 15 – 45years were interviewed. Pretested, pre designed questionnaire were administered to them. Statistical analysis: Data was compiled, tabulated and analyzed using percentages. Results and Conclusion: Among the study population majority (77.5%) heard about HIV/AIDS and (45.6%) gained knowledge about HIV/AIDS through health worker, (29.3%) through media and (14.9%) through doctors. Among the participants, 20.4% told that HIV/AIDS spreads through unprotected sex, 17.0% through blood products and 6.3% through mother to child. Most (57.3%) of the study participants did not know about mother to child transmission. Knowledge about HIV/AIDS is crucial for married women because of increasing prevalence of this infection. There is a need for more information directly and indirectly through consistent awareness program among married women residing in rural areas

Synchrotron radiation infrared microspectroscopy of single living cells in microfluidic devices: Advantages, disadvantages and future perspectives

The possibility to fully exploit the diagnostic capabilities of SR-IRMS for studying single living cells under physiological conditions is limited by several constrains. First of all, the technology for manufacturing materials transparent to both IR and visible light is quite immature, limiting the design of fluidic devices to simple demountable liquid cells. In addition, the water spectral features become prominent in the Mid IR, hiding several cellular bands and therefore limiting the diagnostic capabilities of SR-IRMS. The overcoming of the so called "water absorption barrier" requires the improvement of the protocols for the compensation of buffer spectral contributions, a goal that can be achieved also advancing the quality of IR-suitable fluidic devices. In this paper, the technical solutions employed for microfabricating completely sealed IR-visible transparent fluidic devices for living cell analysis will be presented. Several examples of the results obtained in the study of living U937 monocytes subjected to different stimuli will be selected for highlighting both the advantages and the disadvantages offered by our approach for cellular biologyThe possibility to fully exploit the diagnostic capabilities of SR-IRMS for studying single living cells under physiological conditions is limited by several constrains. First of all, the technology for manufacturing materials transparent to both IR and visible light is quite immature, limiting the design of fluidic devices to simple demountable liquid cells. In addition, the water spectral features become prominent in the Mid IR, hiding several cellular bands and therefore limiting the diagnostic capabilities of SR-IRMS. The overcoming of the so called "water absorption barrier" requires the improvement of the protocols for the compensation of buffer spectral contributions, a goal that can be achieved also advancing the quality of IR-suitable fluidic devices. In this paper, the technical solutions employed for microfabricating completely sealed IR-visible transparent fluidic devices for living cell analysis will be presented. Several examples of the results obtained in the study of living U937 monocytes subjected to different stimuli will be selected for highlighting both the advantages and the disadvantages offered by our approach for cellular biolog