A study on knowledge and practices of antenatal care among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic at a tertiary care hospital, Gujarat, India

Background: Improving maternal health is one of the eight-millennium development goals (MDGs). Since 1990, maternal deaths worldwide have dropped by 47%. This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice on ANC among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic at a tertiary care hospital in Gujarat and their association with various sociodemographic factors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 384 pregnant women in their 3rd trimester attending the antenatal clinic in a tertiary care hospital of Gujarat during April 2018 to September 2018. Pretested questionnaire was used for collecting data by interview after obtaining informed consent. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 20 and Epi Info software.Results: Study reveals that about 58% women had adequate knowledge regarding ANC. It was found that almost all the variables such as age, education, occupation, parity, type of family, and socioeconomic status (SES) had a significant association with awareness about ANC. 100% women were having a positive attitude toward ANC. Around 70%, women were practicing adequately, and variables such as education and SES had a significant association with practices about ANC.Conclusions: These findings can be used to plan a health intervention program aiming to improve the maternal health practices and eventually improve the health status of the women

Assessing the impacts of climate change on marine fisheries of Karnataka and identifying regime shifts

Climate related regime shifts, namely the rapid reorganization of marine ecosystems from one relatively stable state to another, have been reported from several parts of the world, and found responsible for the fluctuations of major fisheries. Time series on ocean-atmosphere parameters together with time series on plankton and/or fish abundance has been extensively used for identifying regime shifts in the oceans from several parts of the globe

Lactic dehydrogenase as a biochemical marker of adverse pregnancy outcome in severe pre-eclampsia, Gujarat

Background: Serum LDH levels can be used to assess the extent of cellular death and thereby the severity of disease in this group of women. This will help in making decision, about the management guidelines to the better the maternal and fetal outcome. Objective of present study was compare serum LDH levels in the normal pregnant women and in women with preeclampsia and eclampsia in ante-partum period and to study the association of maternal and perinatal outcomes with serum LDH levels.Methods: It is a prospective study done at Obstetrics and Gynecology department, GMERS medical college and civil hospital, Gandhinagar during August-September 2016. Participants were divided into four groups according to severity of disease and into three groups according to serum LDH level.Results: Mean level of LDH (IU/l) in Control, Mild pre-eclampsia, Severe pre-eclampsia & Eclampsia was 302.33, 398.56, 675.26 & 1589.85 respectively. Out of total 34 cases with LDH level >800 IU/L, 47.1% cases had ≥160 mm hg SBP & 52.9% had ≥110 mm hg DBP, mean gestational age and mean baby weight was 36.88 week and 1950 gm, mean apgar score at 10 min was 6.96, 47.1% had uneventful outcome, whereas 58.8% had neonatal complications and 5.9% had neonatal death. Almost 26.5% still births, 47.1% perinatal deaths.Conclusions: Higher serum LDH levels during pregnancy have significant association with severity of disease and maternal and fetal outcomes in patients of preeclampsia and eclampsia and can be considered as a supportive prognostic tool from early third trimester

Simulation of the material softening during hot metal forming

Deformation softening is quite often observed during hot working of different alloys. Steels, aluminium, titanium or nickel alloys can demonstrate a decrease in flow stress under active deformation at constant temperatures and strain rates. Though the background microstructural mechanisms as well as the softening rates can be quite different, the treatment of such processes requires special attention. Deformation softening can cause significant non-uniformity of the metal flow resulting in flow localization, formation of shear bands and variation of the microstructure across the workpiece. This paper is devoted to the investigation of the specific issues which arise in this respect in FEM simulation of processes involving softening. The possible role of softening in shear band formation is studied using numerical simulation and physical modelling. The effect of the softening rate on the probability of flow localization is discussed. The interplay of deformation softening with the stain rate and temperature sensitivity is demonstrated using as an example the simulation of Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP). An approach to account for the deformation softening in FEM simulations via process modelling of the microstructure refinement is proposed

Record of stranded whales along Karnataka coast

A whale was stranded in the beach of Guijerbettu, Udupi district, Karnataka on 21.12.2001 . The whale was found in live condition. Thelocal person tried to rescue it but was in vain and later it died. The whale was identified as Balaenopteramusculus (Blue whale). Few vertebrae have been collected and preserved in the museum of Mangalore Research Centre of CMFRI for future identification up to the species level. Another whale (genus : Balaenoptera) was stranded in Kota, Udupi district, Karnataka near the shore of Arama temple on 11.08.2004 in decayed condition

IMECE2005-80078 WIREBOND RELIABILITY ASSESSMENTS AND LAYOUT GUIDELINES FOR A TO247 PACKAGE USING FEA

ABSTRACT Automotive electronics design and manufacture present unique challenges for product reliability. Recent trends toward mounting electronic systems directly onto engines introduce a new level of severity in terms of thermal and vibration environments. Automotive microelectronic packages experience thermal stresses that can possibly cause components and electrical interconnection damage. The loss of electrical interconnection due to coarse Aluminium wires in electronic modules is one of the most critical reliability problems in automotive electronics packaging. The paper intends to help understand and investigate the reliability of Aluminium wire bonds that make the electrical connection between integrated chips and the leads inside a typical leaded electronic package like TO247. Finite element modeling (FEM) is used to simulate the stresses the package goes through during reliability tests. Results are compared to empirical testing. The FE model consists of the entire TO247 package including the leadframe, overmold, chip, substrate, Al wire loops and corresponding bond pads. Results from simulations provide information to map out high stress locations on the heels of the wirebonds due to package warp. In addition, the results also provide manufacturing engineers the insight to develop general bonding guidelines for Aluminium wires. As a result of this exercise, the development team is able to counter the issue and provide a design guideline to design the leadframe, place components away from high stress locations and pursue a more symmetrical layout to reduce the effect of thermal stresses

Molecular surveillance of Dengue Virus (DENV) and its co-infection with Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) among febrile patients: A comparative study from South Delhi, India

Dengue and Chikungunya are two major arboviral infections transmitted worldwide by the mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus. India suffers enormously with both Dengue and Chikungunya as they pose a great public health challenge. The present study aims to evaluate the prevalence of Dengue Virus (DENV), Chikungunya Virus (CHIKV) and DENV/CHIKV co-infection (by Reverse-Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR)/Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), their clinical features, DENV serotypes and CHIKV specific Immunoglobulin G (IgG) within a 7 years gap in the Delhi population. The study sample included clinically suspected febrile patients (?7 days) sera collected during 2017-2018 (n=87) and during 2008-2010 (n=623) from Delhi. Captured ELISA was performed for CHIKV IgG screening and nested PCR was done for DENV serotyping. The percentage prevalence for DENV was significantly higher than CHIKV with 41.38% (n=87) and 16.1% (n=87), respectively; interestingly, DENV/CHIKV co-infection was detected in 10.34% (n=9/87) cases during 2017-2018. Similarly, a high DENV prevalence was observed during 2008-2010 with the prevalence rate of 38.3% (69/180),  34.65% (35/101) and 47.07% (161/342), respectively. DENV 1 and DENV 3 were dominant serotype during 2008-2010 and 2017-2018 respectively. We have noticed a high prevalence (36.67%, 22/60) of the CHIKV IgG antibody in the 2017-2018 samples. Joint pain was more preferential to CHIKV mono-infection and DENV/CHIKV co-infection compared to DENV mono-infection. The present study highlights the need for active surveillance simultaneously for both DENV and CHIKV and to evaluate the role of CHIKV/DENV co-infections in disease severity in the endemic regions.

Novel Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Diagnosis Index Using Deep Features and Local Directional Pattern Techniques

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disorder that exhibits a wide spectrum of clinical presentations, including sudden death. Early diagnosis and intervention may avert the latter. Left ventricular hypertrophy on heart imaging is an important diagnostic criterion for HCM, and the most common imaging modality is heart ultrasound (US). The US is operator-dependent, and its interpretation is subject to human error and variability. We proposed an automated computer-aided diagnostic tool to discriminate HCM from healthy subjects on US images. We used a local directional pattern and the ResNet-50 pretrained network to classify heart US images acquired from 62 known HCM patients and 101 healthy subjects. Deep features were ranked using Student's t-test, and the most significant feature (SigFea) was identified. An integrated index derived from the simulation was defined as 100.log(10 )(SigFea /root 2) in each subject, and a diagnostic threshold value was empirically calculated as the mean of the minimum and maximum integrated indices among HCM and healthy subjects, respectively. An integrated index above a threshold of 0.5 separated HCM from healthy subjects with 100% accuracy in our test dataset

Status of billfish fishery along the Indian coast

The landings of billfishes along the Indian coast showing an increasing trend since the 1990s and the estimated landings during 2019 was reported to be 14759 tonnes. In India, five species Istiophorus platypterus, Kajikia audax, Istiompax indica, Makaira nigricans and Xiphias gladius are reported regularly while rare landings of Tetrapturus angustirostris are also recorded. The average annual billfish landings during 2012-2019 in different maritime states indicates that Kerala (4942.9 t) leads followed by Tamil Nadu 3386.8 t, Andhra Pradesh 2215.3 t, Gujarat 944.5 t, Maharashtra 277.8 t and so on. Mechanised gillnetter forms the chief craft and gear operated for billfish resources. I.platypterus dominated among the billfish species landed during all the years followed by I.indica, X.gladius, M.nigricans and K.audax. The fishes commanded rate of `100 per kg for I. platypterus, 120-140 for X. gladius and 160-200 for Marlins

PNPLA3 Genotype, Arachidonic Acid Intake, and Unsaturated Fat Intake Influences Liver Fibrosis in Hispanic Youth with Obesity

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease impacts 15.2% of Hispanic adolescents and can progress to a build-up of scared tissue called liver fibrosis. If diagnosed early, liver fibrosis may be reversible, so it is necessary to understand risk factors. The aims of this study in 59 Hispanic adolescents with obesity were to: (1) identify potential biological predictors of liver fibrosis and dietary components that influence liver fibrosis, and (2) determine if the association between dietary components and liver fibrosis differs by PNPLA3 genotype, which is highly prevalent in Hispanic adolescents and associated with elevated liver fat. We examined liver fat and fibrosis, genotyped for PNPLA3 gene, and assessed diet via 24-h diet recalls. The prevalence of increased fibrosis was 20.9% greater in males, whereas participants with the GG genotype showed 23.7% greater prevalence. Arachidonic acid was associated with liver fibrosis after accounting for sex, genotype, and liver fat (&beta; = 0.072, p = 0.033). Intakes of several dietary types of unsaturated fat have different associations with liver fibrosis by PNPLA3 genotype after accounting for sex, caloric intake, and liver fat. These included monounsaturated fat (&beta;CC/CG = -0.0007, &beta;GG = 0.03, p-value = 0.004), polyunsaturated fat (&beta;CC/CG = -0.01, &beta;GG = 0.02, p-value = 0.01), and omega-6 (&beta;CC/CG = -0.0102, &beta;GG = 0.028, p-value = 0.01). Results from this study suggest that reduction of arachidonic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acid intake might be important for the prevention of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease progression, especially among those with PNPLA3 risk alleles. &nbsp;</p