Antenatal counselling as a tool to increase acceptability of postpartum intrauterine contraceptive device insertion in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Acceptance of postpartum intrauterine device (IUD) insertions in women in Uttar Pradesh is low. In response to the concept that a good postpartum programme should begin prenatally, this study was designed to determine whether the provision of expert contraceptive counselling during the antenatal period would have an impact on its uptake as compared to women who were counselled in post partum period.Methods: Expert contraceptive counselling was given to 264 and154 women during their antenatal visits and postpartum hospitalization, respectively. Acceptors received IUCDs within 48 h of delivery in the case of vaginal delivery or transcesarean insertion in case of abdominal delivery. The acceptance rate of PPIUCD and the percentage of actual insertions were recorded. The causes of refusal were also recorded.Results: Among the 264 couples counselled in antenatal period 116 (43.9%) had PPIUCD insertion. Among the 154 unbooked women who were counselled postpartum only PPIUCD was inserted in 36 (23.4%) women. PPIUCD insertion was significantly high in women receiving expert counselling during antenatal period as compared to the women who were counselled in postnatal period (p< 0.001). Family refusal, No knowledge of PPIUCD and preference for another contraceptive methods were the most common reasons for refusing the use of PPIUCD.Conclusion: Acceptability of PPIUCD insertion was high in women counselled in antenatal period. Hence, it is suggested that counselling for PPIUCD should start in antenatal period

Replica Placement via Capacitated Vertex Cover

In this paper, we study the replica placement problem on trees and present a constant factor approximation algorithm (with an additional additive constant factor). This improves the best known previous algorithm having an approximation ratio dependent on the maximum degree of the tree. Our techniques also extend to the partial cover version. Our algorithms are based on the LP rounding technique. The core component of our algorithm exploits a connection between the natural LP solutions of the replica placement problem and the capacitated vertex cover problem

Replica Placement on Directed Acyclic Graphs

The replica placement problem has been well studied on trees. In this paper, we study this problem on directed acyclic graphs. The replica placement problem on general DAGs generalizes the set cover problem. We present a constant factor approximation algorithm for the special case of DAGs having bounded degree and bounded tree-width (BDBT-DAGs). We also present a constant factor approximation algorithm for DAGs composed of local BDBT-DAGs connected in a tree like manner (TBDBT-DAGs). The latter class of DAGs generalizes trees as well; we improve upon the previously best known approximation ratio for the problem on trees. Our algorithms are based on the LP rounding technique; the core component of our algorithm exploits the structural properties of tree-decompositions to massage the LP solution into an integral solution

Interaction Map and Selection of microRNA Targets in Parkinson's Disease-Related Genes

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex multigenic neurodisorder frequently occurring in elderly persons. To investigate noncoding tiny microRNA mediated gene regulation, miRanda (version 1.0b) was used to predict human miRNA target sites on selected 29 genes related to PD. To verify output generated from miRanda, a similar analysis was performed only for microRNA target sites in 3′UTR using TargetScan (version 5.1). Data extracted by miRanda elucidates the mode of microRNA action based on the location of target sites in the Parkinson genes. Sites prone to action of multiple miRNAs were identified as “hot spots.” Important properties of each miRNA including multiplicity and cooperativity appear to contribute towards a complex interplay between miRNAs and their targets. Two sets of predicted results were explored for the occurrence of target sites of 112 miRNAs expressed in midbrain. Overall, convergence of results predicted by two algorithms revealed that 48 target sites for midbrain-specific miRNA occur in close proximity in 9 genes. This study will pave a way for selection of potential miRNA candidates for Parkinson's disease-related genes for quick therapeutic applications and diagnosis