Risk factors of ectopic pregnancy: a study in a tertiary care centre

Background: Over the years, there has been a considerable rise in the incidence of ectopic pregnancy. This study was undertaken to identify the risk factors that contribute to this condition, so that immediate action can be taken so as to save the mother.Methods: 62 women, in their first trimester of pregnancy who were diagnosed with ectopic pregnancy were included in the study. Demographic details, clinical and obstetric details were taken from all the patients. Ultrasound was performed to confirm the ectopic pregnancy.Results: Out of the 62 patients, most of them with ectopic pregnancy were found to be in the 26-30 (40.3%) year’s age group. Smoking, whether active or passive was observed in nearly 42% of the cases. The mean gravid status among the women was 3, with 34 live births. 21 of them had induced abortions and 4 were spontaneous. PID was observed in 12 patients (19.4%), 17.7% were IUD users.Conclusions: Risk factors such as previous ectopic pregnancy, use of contraceptives, infertility, PID, abortion as well as increased maternal age aid in the early detection of ectopic pregnancy in women resulting in proper and timely treatment

The incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in antenatal women by screening: a study in a semi urban area in Telangana, India

Background: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia is a premalignant cervical disease which may lead to cervical cancer. The screening of the cervical cancer includes the screening of cervical cytology as well as testing for oncogenic human papilloma viruses (HPV) since most of the precursor lesions appear in the women of child bearing age. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia in antenatal women by screening with papanicolaou smear.Methods: Macroscopic abnormalities such as cervicitis, polyps, erosions, nabothian cysts, hypertrophied cervix, growths and ulcers were noted. A cervical smear using Ayre’s spatula was taken from the ecto cervix and spread on to a labeled slide and immediately fixed.Results: Majority of the women were in the age group of 20-30 years in the study group. The overall mean age of the women in the study was around 25 years. The mean age at the time of menarche was around 14 years and at the time of marriage was approximately 22 years. On Pap smear, 55.2% of the 1000 cases were normal, with inflammation seen in 408 (40.8%) of the cases. 20 (2%) of the patients in our study had low grade squamous intra epithelial lesion, while 7 patients (0.2%) had high grade squamous intra epithelial lesion with two cases showing CIN II grading and 5 with CIN I.Conclusions: An early detection of the same can lead to a proper and efficient treatment

Transport and diffusion in the embedding map

We study the transport properties of passive inertial particles in a $2-d$ incompressible flows. Here the particle dynamics is represented by the $4-d$ dissipative embedding map of $2-d$ area-preserving standard map which models the incompressible flow. The system is a model for impurity dynamics in a fluid and is characterized by two parameters, the inertia parameter $\alpha$, and the dissipation parameter $\gamma$. We obtain the statistical characterisers of transport for this system in these dynamical regimes. These are, the recurrence time statistics, the diffusion constant, and the distribution of jump lengths. The recurrence time distribution shows a power law tail in the dynamical regimes where there is preferential concentration of particles in sticky regions of the phase space, and an exponential decay in mixing regimes. The diffusion constant shows behaviour of three types - normal, subdiffusive and superdiffusive, depending on the parameter regimes. Phase diagrams of the system are constructed to differentiate different types of diffusion behaviour, as well as the behaviour of the absolute drift. We correlate the dynamical regimes seen for the system at different parameter values with the transport properties observed at these regimes, and in the behaviour of the transients. This system also shows the existence of a crisis and unstable dimension variability at certain parameter values. The signature of the unstable dimension variability is seen in the statistical characterisers of transport. We discuss the implications of our results for realistic systems.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, To Appear in Phys. Rev. E; Vol. 79 (2009

Prevalence and causes of blindness in patients coming to a tertiary eye care centre in western Uttar Pradesh

Background: Objective of the research was to study the prevalence of blindness in adult patients coming to a tertiary eye care centre in Western Uttar Pradesh and assess their causes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on adult patients coming to the outpatient department of a tertiary eye care centre over a period of 3 months and 375 patients were identified as having blindness. Complete ophthalmological examination was conducted to find out the cause for the same. Results: The prevalence of blindness was found out to be 4.096%. The major causes for blindness in adults were identified as cataract (33.06%), glaucoma (13.6%), ARMD (5.6%), diabetic retinopathy (5.06%), corneal scar/opacity/dystrophy (26.93%), amblyopia (3.2%) and trauma (2.13%). Conclusions: Knowledge of prevalence of blindness in a region is important in developing and implementing eye care services. Avoidable blindness needs to be identified and treated as soon as possible

Evidence for directed percolation universality at the onset of spatiotemporal intermittency in coupled circle maps

We consider a lattice of coupled circle maps, a model arising naturally in descriptions of solid state phenomena such as Josephson junction arrays. We find that the onset of spatiotemporal intermittency (STI) in this system is analogous to directed percolation (DP), with the transition being to an unique absorbing state for low nonlinearities, and to weakly chaotic absorbing states for high nonlinearities. We find that the complete set of static exponents and spreading exponents at all critical points match those of DP very convincingly. Further, hyperscaling relations are fulfilled, leading to independent controls and consistency checks of the values of all the critical exponents. These results lend strong support to the conjecture that the onset of STI in deterministic models belongs to the DP universality class.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review

Quasi-Elastic Scattering in the Inclusive (3^3He, t) Reaction

The triton energy spectra of the charge-exchange $^{12}$C($^3$He,t) reaction at 2 GeV beam energy are analyzed in the quasi-elastic nucleon knock-out region. Considering that this region is mainly populated by the charge-exchange of a proton in $^3$He with a neutron in the target nucleus and the final proton going in the continuum, the cross-sections are written in the distorted-wave impulse approximation. The t-matrix for the elementary exchange process is constructed in the DWBA, using one pion- plus rho-exchange potential for the spin-isospin nucleon- nucleon potential. This t-matrix reproduces the experimental data on the elementary pn $\rightarrow$np process. The calculated cross-sections for the $^{12}$C($^3$He,t) reaction at $2^o$ to $7^o$ triton emission angle are compared with the corresponding experimental data, and are found in reasonable overall accord.Comment: 19 pages, latex, 11 postscript figures available at [email protected], submitted to Phy.Rev.

Increasing JAK/STAT Signaling Function of Infant CD4+ T Cells during the First Year of Life

Most infant deaths occur in the first year of life. Yet, our knowledge of immune development during this period is scarce and derived from cord blood (CB) only. To more effectively combat pediatric diseases, a deeper understanding of the kinetics and the factors that regulate the maturation of immune functions in early life is needed. Increased disease susceptibility of infants is generally attributed to T helper 2-biased immune responses. The differentiation of CD4+ T cells along a specific T helper cell lineage is dependent on the pathogen type, and on costimulatory and cytokine signals provided by antigen-presenting cells. Cytokines also regulate many other aspects of the host immune response. Therefore, toward the goal of increasing our knowledge of early immune development, we defined the temporal development of the Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) signaling function of CD4+ T cells using cross-sectional blood samples from healthy infants ages 0 (birth) to 14 months. We specifically focused on cytokines important in T cell differentiation (IFN-γ, IL-12, and IL-4) or in T cell survival and expansion (IL-2 and IL-7) in infant CD4+ T cells. Independent of the cytokine tested, JAK/STAT signaling in infant compared to adult CD4+ T cells was impaired at birth, but increased during the first year, with the most pronounced changes occurring in the first 6 months. The relative change in JAK/STAT signaling of infant CD4+ T cells with age was distinct for each cytokine tested. Thus, while about 60% of CB CD4+ T cells could efficiently activate STAT6 in response to IL-4, less than 5% of CB CD4+ T cells were able to activate the JAK/STAT pathway in response to IFN-γ, IL-12 or IL-2. By 4–6 months of age, the activation of the cytokine-specific STAT molecules was comparable to adults in response to IL-4 and IFN-γ, while IL-2- and IL-12-induced STAT activation remained below adult levels even at 1 year. These results suggest that common developmental and cytokine-specific factors regulate the maturation of the JAK/STAT signaling function in CD4+ T cells during the first year of life

Effect of Sintering Temperature on the Magnetodielectric Performance of Nickel Ferrite

Nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) nanopowder has been synthesized by a sol-gel auto-combustion process and further sintered at various sintering temperatures. The sintered samples were characterized by XRD, SEM and VSM. Enhancement of apparent density of the sample has been observed with the increase in sintering temperature and has a great influence on the magnetic and dielectric properties of NiFe2O4. The SEM results reveal that the grain size increases with increasing sintering temperature. The electrical resistivity decreases and the dielectric constant increases with increasing sintering temperature has been observed. The magnetic studies shown that the ferrimagnetic behaviour increases with sintering temperature. These results suggest that sintering temperature has a prominent effect on the magnetodielectric properties. © 2022 Author(s)

Synchronisation in Coupled Sine Circle Maps

We study the spatially synchronized and temporally periodic solutions of a 1-d lattice of coupled sine circle maps. We carry out an analytic stability analysis of this spatially synchronized and temporally periodic case and obtain the stability matrix in a neat block diagonal form. We find spatially synchronized behaviour over a substantial range of parameter space. We have also extended the analysis to higher spatial periods with similar results. Numerical simulations for various temporal periods of the synchronized solution, reveal that the entire structure of the Arnold tongues and the devil's staircase seen in the case of the single circle map can also be observed for the synchronized coupled sine circle map lattice. Our formalism should be useful in the study of spatially periodic behaviour in other coupled map lattices.Comment: uuencoded, 1 rextex file 14 pages, 3 postscript figure