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.

Biosubstitutes for dural closure: Unveiling research, application, and future prospects of dura mater alternatives

The dura mater, as the crucial outermost protective layer of the meninges, plays a vital role in safeguarding the underlying brain tissue. Neurosurgeons face significant challenges in dealing with trauma or large defects in the dura mater, as they must address the potential complications, such as wound infections, pseudomeningocele formation, cerebrospinal fluid leakage, and cerebral herniation. Therefore, the development of dural substitutes for repairing or reconstructing the damaged dura mater holds clinical significance. In this review we highlight the progress in the development of dural substitutes, encompassing autologous, allogeneic, and xenogeneic replacements, as well as the polymeric-based dural substitutes fabricated through various scaffolding techniques. In particular, we explore the development of composite materials that exhibit improved physical and biological properties for advanced dural substitutes. Furthermore, we address the challenges and prospects associated with developing clinically relevant alternatives to the dura mater

ISOLATION OF ASPERGILLUS SPECIES FROM SPUTUM SAMPLES: A STUDY CONDUCTED IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL, AHMEDABAD

Introduction: In the last three decades, fungal infection has become important cause respiratory tract infection. The increase in frequency is mainly due to intensive cytotoxic therapy, greater use of broad spectrum antibiotics, corticosteroids and Immuno-suppresants. Material and Method: Sputum Samples were collected from june 2005 to june 2006.The samples were subjected to direct microscopy using Gram staining, KOH wet mounts, India ink preparations depending on the type of specimen and the suspected infection in the patient. Fungal culture was done on Sabouraud dextrose agar, with and without chloramphenicol, Czapek`s solution agar and malt extract agar. Result: This study was undertaken to determine isolation of Aspergillus species from sputum samples. 61% of sputum specimens were culture positive and 39% were negative among cases of chronic respiratory diseases. 29% of 100 samples are aspergillus spp. while 32% of positive culture are other than aspergillus spp. Highest number of male & female patients were from 31-40 years of age and then gradually decrease in number in 21-30 and 41-50 years of age group. Conclusion: An increase in rate of infection occurs during a period of building construction, particularly in zones surrounding hospitals

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