166,303 research outputs found
Determinants of neonatal mortality in rural India, 2007-2008.
Background. Despite the growing share of neonatal mortality in under-5 mortality in the recent decades in India, most studies have focused on infant and child mortality putting neonatal mortality on the back seat. The development of focused and evidence-based health interventions to reduce neonatal mortality warrants an examination of factors affecting it. Therefore, this study attempt to examine individual, household, and community level factors affecting neonatal mortality in rural India.Data and methods. We analysed information on 171,529 singleton live births using the data from the most recent round of the District Level Household Survey conducted in 2007–08. Principal component analysis was used to create an asset index. Two-level logistic regression was performed to analyse the factors associated with neonatal deaths in rural India.Results. The odds of neonatal death were lower for neonates born to mothers with secondary level education (O R = 0.60, p = 0.01) compared to those born to illiterate mothers. A progressive reduction in the odds occurred as the level of fathers’ education increased. The odds of neonatal death were lower for infants born to unemployed mothers (O R = 0.89, p = 0.00) compared to those who worked as agricultural worker/farmer/laborer. The odds decreased if neonates belonged to Scheduled Tribes (O R = 0.72, p = 0.00) or ‘Others’ caste group (O R = 0.87, p = 0.04) and to the households with access to improved sanitation (O R = 0.87, p = 0.02), pucca house (O R = 0.87, p = 0.03) and electricity (O R = 0.84, p = 0.00). The odds were higher for male infants (O R = 1.21, p = 0.00) and whose mother experienced delivery complications (O R = 1.20, p = 0.00). Infants whose mothers received two tetanus toxoid injections (O R = 0.65, p = 0.00) were less likely to die in the neonatal period. Children of higher birth order were less likely to die compared to first birth order.Conclusion. Ensuring the consumption of an adequate quantity of Tetanus Toxoid (TT) injections by pregnant mothers, targeting vulnerable groups like young, first time and Scheduled Caste mothers, and improving overall household environment by increasing access to improved toilets, electricity, and pucca houses could also contribute to further reductions in neonatal mortality in rural India. Any public health interventions aimed at reducing neonatal death in rural India should consider these factors
Strings, Junctions and Stability
Identification of string junction states of pure SU(2) Seiberg-Witten theory
as B-branes wrapped on a Calabi-Yau manifold in the geometric engineering limit
is discussed. The wrapped branes are known to correspond to objects in the
bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on the projective line \cp{1} in
this limit. We identify the pronged strings with triangles in the underlying
triangulated category using Pi-stability. The spiral strings in the weak
coupling region are interpreted as certain projective resolutions of the
invertible sheaves. We discuss transitions between the spiral strings and
junctions using the grade introduced for Pi-stability through the central
charges of the corresponding objects.Comment: 15 pages, LaTeX; references added. typos correcte
Analytic Light-Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows: Homogeneous versus Wind External Media
Assuming an adiabatic evolution of a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) remnant
interacting with an external medium, we calculate the injection, cooling, and
absorption break frequencies, and the afterglow flux for plausible orderings of
the break and observing frequencies. The analytical calculations are restricted
to a relativistic remnant and, in the case of collimated ejecta, to the phase
where there is an insignificant lateral expansion. Results are given for both a
homogeneous external medium and for a wind ejected by the GRB progenitor.
We compare the afterglow emission at different observing frequencies, for
each type of external medium. It is found that observations at sub-millimeter
frequencies during the first day provide the best way of discriminating between
the two models. By taking into account the effect of inverse Compton
scatterings on the electron cooling, a new possible time-dependence of the
cooling break is identified. The signature of the up-scattering losses could be
seen in the optical synchrotron emission from a GRB remnant interacting with a
pre-ejected wind, as a temporary mild flattening of the afterglow decay. The
up-scattered radiation itself should be detected in the soft X-ray emission
from GRB remnants running into denser external media, starting few hours after
the main event.Comment: 11 pages, to be published in the ApJ, vol 54
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