Determinants of maternal health care utilisation in India : Evidence from a recent household survey

In India, utilisation of basic health services has remained poor. The reasons may be low levels of household income, high illiteracy and ignorance, and a host of traditional factors. In this paper an attempt is made to discuss the issues associated with the demand and supply of the five measures of maternity care-antenatal care, blood pressure check up, place of delivery, use of trained help at the time of delivery and postnatal care. Econometric analysis is undertaken to find out the determinants of the use of reproductive health care services among rural Indian households. Rural data from 32,000 households belonging to 1765 villages across all parts of India was collected by National Council of Applied Economic Research in 1994. The multi-model survey was conducted both at the national and state level. The analysis pertains to 7635 women in the reproductive age group who delivered a child in the year before the survey. The focus on the role of education, information and economic factors as determinants of health care accessibility and their utilisation is the speciality of this analysis. Analysis shows that education and information variables significantly increase the utilisation rates for prenatal, child delivery and postnatal health care. Women with primary education are more likely to use maternal health services as compared to illiterate women, even after controlling for income and health care supply factors. Exposure to media increases the probability of reproductive health care utilisation. Economic factors such as wages and income are important only for the utilisation of child delivery services. Access to locally available health services significantly increases maternity care use. An important health care facility in this respect has been the village level ICDS centre. Further, probit regressions analysis is used to xamine the impact of individual, household and community level variables on the above choices of reproductive health care.Health CareMaternal Health CareReproductive Health Care

Medullary thyroid carcinoma spindle cell variant: a rare case report

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) accounts for only 4% of thyroid tumors and originates from parafollicular cells secreting calcitonin. However, it accounts for 13% of all thyroid cancer related death. We herein report a case of 50 years male who presented with a right neck swelling measuring 3×2×2 cm for 2 years, which was gradually increasing. Ultrasonography of the neck revealed a hypoechoic nodule in the right lobe of thyroid. There was no relevant family history. Patient was clinically euthyroid. Fine needle aspiration smears showed many dispersed spindle shaped cells and loosely cohesive clusters of cells. Nuclei of these cells are spindle shaped and showing moderate anisokaryosis. Clumps of hyaline material also seen. A provisional diagnosis of MTC spindle cell variant had been made, which was confirmed by histopathology. Early diagnosis of MTC is very important. Because if patient do not have metastatic disease usually cured by total thyroidectomy.

Naringin a potent antioxidant used as bioavailibility enhancer for terbinafine hydrochloride

The poor bioavailability of drugs has been identified as the single most important challenge in oral drug delivery. Prominent among the factors responsible for this are the oxidative metabolic activity of the intestinal and hepatic cytochrome P450 enzyme family. Naringin and naringenin which are the major phytochemical component of grapefruit juice, a well-known cytochrome P450 3A4 inhibitor and flavone glycoside, is antioxidant in nature and occurs naturally in the pericarp of citrus fruit, and particularly of grapefruit (Citrus paradisii) where it is the predominant flavonoid found and is responsible for the bitter taste associated with the fruit. CYP3A4 which is a class of CYP – 450 (microsomal enzyme) is responsible for the oxidative metabolic reaction of various substrates which decreases the bioavailability of drug

To study the efficacy and tolerability of fenugreek seed powder as add-on therapy with metformin in patients of type-2 diabetes mellitus

Background: Fenugreek, an ancient herb has been known for its culinary and medicinal value in Indian Subcontinent. Its seeds, rich in fibers and phytochemical compounds, have been investigated for their hypoglycemic and multiple benefits. This study was thus undertaken to assess the anti-hyperglycemic effect of fenugreek seeds in patients of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) as add-on therapy with metformin.Methods: An open-labelled comparative study of 12 weeks duration was conducted on patients (randomly divided in 2 groups of 30 each) of Type 2 DM. Group 1 was given metformin 500 mg twice a day while group 2 was given 500 mg of metformin along with fenugreek seed powder capsule,1 gm thrice a day. Weekly evaluation for fasting and post-prandial blood sugar was done. HbA1c estimation was done at the beginning and at the end of the study. Student’s t-test (paired and unpaired) was applied for statistical analysis.Results: After 12 weeks of treatment, there was significant fall in fasting, as well as postprandial blood sugar and HbA1c levels in group 1 and group 2. However this improvement was statistically more significant in group 2 when compared to group 1.Conclusions: This study shows the beneficial effects of fenugreek seeds on glycemic profile in patients of Type 2 DM and can be used as an add-on therapy with metformin in management of Type 2 DM

A LITERATURE SURVEY AND BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF CONTROLLING SHAREHOLDERS ON DIVIDEND POLICY

We conduct a systemic review of literature on whether controlling shareholders influence firms’ dividend polices. We examine the literature on the linear and non-linear association between the equity holding of the controlling shareholders and dividend policy. The review suggests lack of consensus on the role of insiders and controlling shareholders in deciding the firm’s propensity and intensity to pay dividends. Finally, we conduct a bibliometric analysis of the research articles referred in this study which suggests that the USA contributes most of the articles examining the dividend policy taking into consideration the ownership structure, with University of Chicago being the most relevant affiliation of the authors examining this relation

DOES MUTUAL FUND MANAGER’S ATTRIBUTES IMPACT FUND PERFORMANCE? EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

This paper examines the impact of two managerial characteristics – qualification and work experience on the fund performance of various mutual fund schemes in India. We analyse 1508 fund managers during the period 2005–2018 using panel OLS regression. Our results suggest that work experience of the managers positively affects the performance of the open-ended schemes. After segregating the data into different schemes and different qualification categories, we find that the number of years, for which the manager is handling a scheme, is positively related to fund performance for almost all the schemes and qualifications. Further, we find evidence to support the notion that better quality of education and specialised courses also contribute to improving the fund performance. In India, the mutual fund industry is expected to grow at an exponential rate in the coming years, and this study provides an insight into the characteristics of the fund managers impacting the performance of such funds

Research assessments and rankings: Accounting for accountability in "Higher Education Ltd"

Over the past two decades, higher education in advanced capitalist societies has undergone a process of radical “reform”. A key element of this reform has been the introduction of a number of accounting-based techniques in the pursuit of improved accountability and transparency. While the “old” accounting was to do with stewardship, the “new” accounting is to do with performance. In accordance with the performance principle, the publishing companies and the higher education funding bodies have engaged in ranking exercises. These exercises impact on all aspects of academic life as the entities that are ranked and rated include universities, disciplines, journals, and academics and their “outputs” in teaching and research. This paper explores the genesis and the consequences of the performance discourse. It argues for a philosophical separation of the notions of accountability and accounting. Furthermore, it raises the issue of academic accountability as something that exceeds the logic of accounting

Cellular Automata Based Image Authentication Scheme Using Extended Visual Cryptography

Most of the Visual Cryptography based image authentication schemes hide the share and authentication data into cover images by using an additional data hiding process. This process increases the computational cost of the schemes. Pixel expansion, meaningless shares and use of codebook are other challenges in these schemes. To overcome these issues, an authentication scheme is proposed in which no embedding into the cover images is performed and meaningful authentication shares are created using the watermark and cover images. This makes the scheme completely imperceptible. The watermark can be retrieved just by superimposing these authentication shares, thus reducing the computational complexity at receiver's side. Cellular Automata is used to construct the master share that provides self-construction ability to the shares. The meaningful authentication shares help in enhancing the security of the scheme while size invariance saves transmission and storage cost. The scheme possesses the ability of tamper detection. Experimental results demonstrate the improved security and quality of the generated shares of the proposed scheme as compared to existing schemes

Adaptive Reversible Data Hiding Scheme for Digital Images Based on Histogram Shifting

Existing histogram based reversible data hiding schemes use only absolute difference values between the neighboring pixels of a cover image. In these schemes, maxima and minima points at maximum distance are selected in all the blocks of the image which causes shifting of the large number of pixels to embed the secret data. This shifting produces more degradation in the visual quality of the marked image. In this work, the cover image is segmented into blocks, which are classified further into complex and smooth blocks using a threshold value. This threshold value is optimized using firefly algorithm. Simple difference values between the neighboring pixels of complex blocks have been utilized to embed the secret data bits. The closest maxima and minima points in the histogram of the difference blocks are selected so that number of shifted pixels get reduced, which further reduces the distortion in the marked image. Experimental results prove that the proposed scheme has better performance as compared to the existing schemes. The scheme shows minimum distortion and large embedding capacity. Novelty of work is the usage of negative difference values of complex blocks for secret data embedding with the minimal number of pixel shifting

Development and characterization of surface solid dispersion of curcumin for solubility enhancement

Surface solid dispersion (SSD) of curcumin was developed and characterized with purview to overcome solubility hurdle in its pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic performance. SSDs were prepared by co-evaporation method using polyplasdone XL, croscarmelose sodium, and silicone dioxide and polyethlene glycol 6000 as carrier. The optimized SSD (F9) was characterized using FE-SEM and XRD as an analytical tool. The formulation of modified Curcumin shows better drug release profile as compared to the natural Curcumin. Formulation F9 released more than 90% of the loaded Curcumin within 30 minutes where marketed formulations shows 90% drug only after 60 minutes. &nbsp