Self-medication amongst pregnant women in a tertiary care teaching hospital in India

Background: Self-medication is a popular practice in developing countries where there is no strict regulation of drugs sold in local pharmacies. General public is usually unaware of the adverse effects of drugs used for common illness and continue using them without prescription during pregnancy. This study was carried out to know the extent of self-medication practised by pregnant women and various factors associated with it.Methods: A questionnaire based, cross-sectional study of pregnant women visiting the OB GYN-OPD of a tertiary care teaching hospital was conducted. 303 eligible subjects were questioned and statistical analysis was carried out.Results: Total 16.5% women were found to be self-medicating during pregnancy for common conditions like headache (26%), fever (23%) and common cold (19%). Odds Ratio between the self-medicating and non-self-medicating groups for variables like age (<25 years; ≥25 years), education (illiterate; literate) and gestational age (<20 weeks; ≥20 weeks) are 1.6, 2 and 1.73 respectively. Women with a history of self-medicating before pregnancy were significantly more likely to continue doing so during pregnancy (p value <0.00001).Conclusions: A significant proportion of pregnant women have been found to self-medicate without knowing the adverse effects of the drug used. Thus, spreading awareness against this health-predicament is necessary

Geodesic motions versus hydrodynamic flows in a gravitating perfect fluid: Dynamical equivalence and consequences

Stimulated by the methods applied for the observational determination of masses in the central regions of the AGNs, we examine the conditions under which, in the interior of a gravitating perfect fluid source, the geodesic motions and the general relativistic hydrodynamic flows are dynamically equivalent to each other. Dynamical equivalence rests on the functional similarity between the corresponding (covariantly expressed) differential equations of motion and is obtained by conformal transformations. In this case, the spaces of the solutions of these two kinds of motion are isomorphic. In other words, given a solution to the problem "hydrodynamic flow in a perfect fluid", one can always construct a solution formally equivalent to the problem "geodesic motion of a fluid element" and vice versa. Accordingly, we show that, the observationally determined nuclear mass of the AGNs is being overestimated with respect to the real, physical one. We evaluate the corresponding mass-excess and show that it is not always negligible with respect to the mass ofthe central dark object, while, under circumstances, can be even larger than the rest-mass of the circumnuclear gas involved.Comment: LaTeX file, 22 page

Young stars and non-stellar emission in the aligned radio galaxy 3C 256

We present ground-based images of the z=1.824 radio galaxy 3C 256 in the standard BVRIJHK filters and an interference filter centered at 8800A, a Hubble Space Telescope image in a filter dominated by Ly-alpha emission (F336W), and spectra covering rest-frame wavelengths from Ly-alpha to [O III] 5007. Together with published polarimetry observations, we use these to decompose the overall spectral energy distribution into nebular continuum emission, scattered quasar light, and stellar emission. The nebular continuum and scattered light together comprise half (one third) of the V-band (K-band) light within a 4-arcsec aperture, and are responsible for the strong alignment between the optical/near-infrared light and the radio emission. The stellar emission is dominated by a population estimated to be 100-200 Myr old (assuming a Salpeter IMF), and formed in a short burst with a peak star formation rate of 1-4x10^3 Msun/yr. The total stellar mass is estimated to be no more than 2x10^{11} Msun, which is far less than other luminous radio galaxies at similar redshifts, and suggests that 3C 256 will undergo further star formation or mergers.Comment: 35 pages including 10 figures; to appear in Nov 10 Ap

Massive Ellipticals at High Redshift: NICMOS Imaging of Z~1 Radio Galaxies

We present deep, continuum images of eleven high-redshift (0.811 < z < 1.875) 3CR radio galaxies observed with NICMOS. Our images probe the rest-frame optical light where stars are expected to dominate the galaxy luminosity. The rest-frame UV light of eight of these galaxies demonstrates the well-known ``alignment effect''. Most of the radio galaxies have rounder, more symmetric morphologies at rest-frame optical wavelengths. Here we show the most direct evidence that in most cases the stellar hosts are normal elliptical galaxies with de Vaucouleurs law light profiles. For a few galaxies very faint traces of the UV-bright aligned component are also visible in the infrared images. We derive both the effective radius and surface-brightness for nine of eleven sample galaxies by fitting surface-brightness models to them. We find their sizes are similar to those of local FRII radio source hosts and are in general larger than other local galaxies. The derived host galaxy luminosities are very high and lie at the bright end of luminosity functions constructed at similar redshifts. The galaxies in our sample are also brighter than the rest-frame size--surface-brightness locus defined by the low-redshift sources. Passive evolution roughly aligns the z ~ 1 galaxies with the low-redshift samples. The optical host is sometimes centered on a local minimum in the rest-frame UV emission, suggesting the presence of substantial dust obscuration. We also see good evidence of nuclear point sources in three galaxies. Overall, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that these galaxies have already formed the bulk of their stars at redshifts greater than z >~ 2, and that the AGN phenomenon takes place within otherwise normal, perhaps passively evolving, galaxies. (abridged)Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, accepted to ApJ. Uses AASTEX and emulateapj

Age-Related Degradation of Nuclear Power Plant Structures and Components

This paper summarizes and highlights the results of the initial phase of a research project on the assessment of aged and degraded structures and components important to the safe operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). A review of age-related degradation of structures and passive components at NPPs was performed. Instances of age-related degradation have been collected and reviewed. Data were collected from plant generated documents such as Licensing Event Reports, NRC generic communications, NUREGs and industry reports. Applicable cases of degradation occurrences were reviewed and then entered into a computerized database. The results obtained from the review of degradation occurrences are summarized and discussed. Various trending analyses were performed to identify which structures and components are most affected, whether degradation occurrences are worsening, and what was the most common aging mechanisms. The paper also discusses potential aging issues and degradation-susceptible structures and passive components which would have the greatest impact on plant risk

Supermassive Stars in Quasar Disks

We propose that supermassive stars may form in quasar accretion disks, and we discuss possible observational consequences. The structure and stability of very massive stars are reviewed. Because of high accretion rates, quasar disks are massive and the fringes of their optically luminous parts are prone to fragmentation. Starting from a few hundred solar masses, a dominant fragment will grow to the isolation mass, which is a significant fraction of the disk mass, more quickly than the fragment contracts onto the stellar main sequence. A gap will form in the disk and the star will migrate inward on the accretion timescale, which is comparable to the star's main sequence lifetime. By interrupting the gas supply to the inner disk, the gap may temporarily dim and redden the quasar. The final stages of stellar migration will be a strong source of low-frequency gravitational waves.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures; accepted to ApJ; expanded discussio

Experiences with community engagement and informed consent in a genetic cohort study of severe childhood diseases in Kenya

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The potential contribution of community engagement to addressing ethical challenges for international biomedical research is well described, but there is relatively little documented experience of community engagement to inform its development in practice. This paper draws on experiences around community engagement and informed consent during a genetic cohort study in Kenya to contribute to understanding the strengths and challenges of community engagement in supporting ethical research practice, focusing on issues of communication, the role of field workers in 'doing ethics' on the ground and the challenges of community consultation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The findings are based on action research methods, including analysis of community engagement documentation and the observations of the authors closely involved in their development and implementation. Qualitative and quantitative content analysis has been used for documentation of staff meetings and trainings, a meeting with 24 community leaders, and 40 large public and 70 small community group meetings. Meeting minutes from a purposive sample of six community representative groups have been analysed using a thematic framework approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Field workers described challenges around misunderstandings about research, perceived pressure for recruitment and challenges in explaining the study. During consultation, leaders expressed support for the study and screening for sickle cell disease. In community meetings, there was a common interpretation of research as medical care. Concerns centred on unfamiliar procedures. After explanations of study procedures to leaders and community members, few questions were asked about export of samples or the archiving of samples for future research.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Community engagement enabled researchers to take account of staff and community opinions and issues during the study and adapt messages and methods to address emerging ethical challenges. Field workers conducting informed consent faced complex issues and their understanding, attitudes and communication skills were key influences on ethical practice. Community consultation was a challenging concept to put into practice, illustrating the complexity of assessing information needs and levels of deliberation that are appropriate to a given study.</p

Atomic-scale modeling of the deformation of nanocrystalline metals

Nanocrystalline metals, i.e. metals with grain sizes from 5 to 50 nm, display technologically interesting properties, such as dramatically increased hardness, increasing with decreasing grain size. Due to the small grain size, direct atomic-scale simulations of plastic deformation of these materials are possible, as such a polycrystalline system can be modeled with the computational resources available today. We present molecular dynamics simulations of nanocrystalline copper with grain sizes up to 13 nm. Two different deformation mechanisms are active, one is deformation through the motion of dislocations, the other is sliding in the grain boundaries. At the grain sizes studied here the latter dominates, leading to a softening as the grain size is reduced. This implies that there is an ``optimal'' grain size, where the hardness is maximal. Since the grain boundaries participate actively in the deformation, it is interesting to study the effects of introducing impurity atoms in the grain boundaries. We study how silver atoms in the grain boundaries influence the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline copper.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX2e, PS figures and sty files included. To appear in Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. vol 538 (invited paper). For related papers, see http://www.fysik.dtu.dk/~schiotz/publist.htm

AKARI's infrared view on nearby stars : Using AKARI Infrared Camera All-Sky Survey, 2MASS, and Hipparcos catalog

--Results-- We found that the (B-V) v.s. (V-S9W) color-color diagram is useful to identify the stars with infrared excess emerged from circumstellar envelopes/disks. Be stars with infrared excess are well separated from other types of stars in this diagram. Whereas (J-L18W) v.s. (S9W-L18W) diagram is a powerful tool to classify several object-types. Carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and OH/IR stars form distinct sequences in this color-color diagram. Young stellar objects (YSOs), pre-main sequence (PMS) stars, post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae (PNe) have largest mid-infrared color-excess, and can be identified in infrared catalog. Finally, we plot L18W v.s. (S9W-L18W) color-magnitude diagram, using the AKARI data together with Hipparcos parallaxes. This diagram can be used to identify low-mass YSOs, as well as AGB stars. We found that this diagram is comparable to the [24] vs ([8.0]-[24]) diagram of Large Magellanic Cloud sources using the Spitzer Space Telescope data. Our understanding of Galactic objects will be used to interpret color-magnitude diagram of stellar populations in nearby galaxies which Spitzer Space Telescope has observed. --Conclusions-- Our study of the AKARI color-color and color-magnitude will be used to explore properties of unknown objects in future. In addition, our analysis highlights a future key project to understand stellar evolution with circumstellar envelope, once the forthcoming astronometrical data with GAIA are available.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. High resolution version is available at: http://www.ir.isas.jaxa.jp/%7Eyita/allsky20100302.pdf (26Mb

Epitaxial growth in dislocation-free strained alloy films: Morphological and compositional instabilities

The mechanisms of stability or instability in the strained alloy film growth are of intense current interest to both theorists and experimentalists. We consider dislocation-free, coherent, growing alloy films which could exhibit a morphological instability without nucleation. We investigate such strained films by developing a nonequilibrium, continuum model and by performing a linear stability analysis. The couplings of film-substrate misfit strain, compositional stress, deposition rate, and growth temperature determine the stability of film morphology as well as the surface spinodal decomposition. We consider some realistic factors of epitaxial growth, in particular the composition dependence of elastic moduli and the coupling between top surface and underlying bulk of the film. The interplay of these factors leads to new stability results. In addition to the stability diagrams both above and below the coherent spinodal temperature, we also calculate the kinetic critical thickness for the onset of instability as well as its scaling behavior with respect to misfit strain and deposition rate. We apply our results to some real growth systems and discuss the implications related to some recent experimental observations.Comment: 26 pages, 13 eps figure