A prospective observational study to evaluate prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy

Background: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is under-diagnosed condition in pregnancy. Prompt recognition of asymptomatic bacteriuria and its treatment is necessary as this condition can be associated with adverse maternal and foetal complications. Screening of asymptomatic bacteriuria is easy and replicable and goes a long way in promoting safer maternal and foetal outcomes. The aim of the study was to determine (a) prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women attending antenatal care and determine its association with age, parity and socio-economic status, and (b) microbiological patterns of the causative organism.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study that evaluated 200 pregnant women visiting antenatal care in tertiary care hospital, SS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Davangere, India. A study was conducted in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Subjects having fever, symptoms of urinary tract infection, underlying co-morbid conditions were excluded from the study. Those willing to give a valid consent with no signs of urinary tract infection were included in the study.Results: The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was noted to be 19% in our study. The most common organism noted to cause asymptomatic bacteriuria was noted to be E. coli followed by Staphylococcus aureus. The prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria was noted to be highest in the second trimester followed by those in first trimester.Conclusions: Asymptomatic bacteriuria is widely prevalent in pregnancy. Pregnant women should be screened every trimester for presence of asymptomatic bacteriuria.

Antibacterial activity of Glycyrrhiza glabra roots against certain gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains

The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial potency of grinded crude material (root of Glycyrrhiza glabra) against some gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains. Two solvents (methanol and acetone) were used to extract the phytochemicals from the test material. Four different concentrations (100%, 75%, 50% and 25%) of methanolic and acetonic extract were used to investigate the inhibiting properties against Salmonella typhi, Escherichia.coli, Vibrio cholerae, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis strains. Among methanol and acetone extracts, later exhibited low antibacterial activity. The 100% (w/v) concentration of both extracts showed maximum inhibition against B. subtilis followed by E. coli, S. aureus, B. cereus, S. typhi and V. Cholerae. Maximum activity in acetonic extract was obtained against B. cereus followed by S. typhi, E. coli, V. cholerae and S .aureus and minimum in B. subtilis. A reverse pattern of inhibition activity was found in both extacts (methanolic and acetonic) against B. subtilis. Maximum activity was found in methanolic extract against B. subtilis (18.6 mm) but it was only 14.3 mm against this strain in acetonic extract. The antibacterial activity of the crude samples corresponded to that of concentration. Hence there was positive correlation of antibacterial activity with the test material

Evaluation of relationship between microbial load and drug efficacy of Andrographis paniculata during storage

Three different extracts of Andrographis paniculata obtained by using three different solvents i.e. acetone, ethanol and water, were used to find out correlation of antimicrobial potency of the drug among them and with storage period of six months. Antibacterial activities were assessed by well diffusion method against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Salmonella typhi and antifungal activity by food poisoning technique against Candida albicans. No definite pattern of antimicrobial nature in acetone, ethanol and aqueous extract could be observed. Acetone extract showed maximum inhibitory (18.3mm) effect among all extract in general. Ethanol extract could attain second position and aqueous extract failed to inhibit growth of any organism even at 100% concentration. A declined trend of inhibitory effect of extract with increased number of storage days has been found showing a negative relation between inhibitory effect of the drug and storage duration. But positive correlation between inhibitory effect and concentration has been recorded. No inhibition was recorded against E. coli by any of the extract Bacterial load in term of CFU/g was found tremendously enhanced with increase of storage period. Negative correlation between microbial load and drug efficacy had been established while positive correlation between microbial load and storage period had been recorded

Proper Motion of the Faint Star near KIC 8462852 (Boyajian's Star) - Not a Binary System

A faint star located 2 arcsec from KIC 8462852 was discovered in Keck 10 m adaptive optics imaging in the $JHK$ near-infrared (NIR) in 2014 by Boyajian et al. (2016). The closeness of the star to KIC 8462852 suggested the two could constitute a binary, which might have implications for the cause of the brightness dips seen by {\it Kepler} (Boyajian et al. (2016) and in ground-based optical studies Boyajian et al. (2018). Here, NIR imaging in 2017 using the Mimir instrument resolved the pair and enabled measuring their separation. The faint star had moved $67 \pm 7$ milliarcsec (mas) relative to KIC 8462852 since 2014. The relative proper motion of the faint star is $23.9 \pm 2.6$ mas yr$^{-1}$, for a tangential velocity of $45 \pm 5$ km s$^{-1}$ if it is at the same 390 pc distance as KIC 8462852. Circular velocity at the 750 AU current projected separation is $1.5$ km s$^{-1}$, hence the star pair cannot be bound.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Abortion and contraception practices in COVID-19 era

Background: To protect the gains made in sexual and reproductive health in over the past several decades, care for childbearing women and newborn infant’s needs to continue during the pandemic. The provision of safe abortion and contraceptive services remains critical. When staff and services are under extreme stress there is a real risk of increasing avoidable harm. Aim and objectives were to determine the effect of COVID-19 on accessibility and acceptance of contraception and safe abortion care services.Methods: Questionnaire survey was Done among 500 women in 6 months from April to September 2020, on availability and utilization of safe abortion and contraception services during lock down in covid time from patients getting treatment by Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Muzaffarnagar Medical College and health care workers (paramedics and others staff) of reproductive age group working in the institute.Results: Majority (56%) of women were in the age group of 20-30 years. 70% of women have access to contraception at present while it was reduced to 60% during lockdown. Most commonly used method was barrier method (70%) followed by OCP’s which they could avail maximum from pharmacy (40%). 65% of women had access to post delivery and post abortion contraception with most common method adopted being injectables, in 3% cases IUCD was inserted, 1% ligation with LSCS. Among them 42 cases were covid positive who underwent caesarean section and adopted contraception thereafter with tubal ligation in 2 cases.  In this study 32% of women had unwanted pregnancy, among them 35% underwent surgical abortion 61% medical abortion and 4% continued pregnancy.Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted safe abortion and contraception services. Unwanted pregnancy increased to 32%. 62% subjects claimed for accessibility at government centre and door to door by health worker

optimizing the operation of energy storage using a non linear lithium ion battery degradation model

Abstract Given their technological and market maturity, lithium-ion batteries are increasingly being considered and used in grid applications to provide a host of services such as frequency regulation, peak shaving, etc. Charging and discharging these batteries causes degradation in their performance. Lack of data on degradation processes combined with requirement of fast computation have led to over-simplified models of battery degradation. In this work, the recent experimental evidence that demonstrates that degradation in lithium-ion batteries is non-linearly dependent on the operating conditions is incorporated. Experimental aging data of a commercial battery have been used to develop a scheduling model applicable to the time constraints of a market model. A decomposition technique that enables the developed model to give near-optimal results for longer time horizons is also proposed

The role of fingerprints in the coding of tactile information probed with a biomimetic sensor

In humans, the tactile perception of fine textures (spatial scale <200 micrometers) is mediated by skin vibrations generated as the finger scans the surface. To establish the relationship between texture characteristics and subcutaneous vibrations, a biomimetic tactile sensor has been designed whose dimensions match those of the fingertip. When the sensor surface is patterned with parallel ridges mimicking the fingerprints, the spectrum of vibrations elicited by randomly textured substrates is dominated by one frequency set by the ratio of the scanning speed to the interridge distance. For human touch, this frequency falls within the optimal range of sensitivity of Pacinian afferents, which mediate the coding of fine textures. Thus, fingerprints may perform spectral selection and amplification of tactile information that facilitate its processing by specific mechanoreceptors.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, article + supporting materia