Knowledge, attitude and practices of contraception among the married women of reproductive age group in urban slums of Lucknow

Background: Despite the availability of a wide range of contraceptive and mass media campaigns and information, education, and communication programs, population control remains a distant dream to achieve. The low use of spacing methods is reflected by early childbearing and short birth intervals. The present study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of different contraceptive methods among married women in the reproductive age group.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 230 married women in the reproductive age group (18-49 years) attending the outpatient department (OPD) of urban health training centre and came mainly from the neighboring slum locality.Results: We have included a total of 230 participants in the study analysis. Almost all (98.6%) of the study participants had knowledge about at least one method of contraception. If we see the use of contraceptive methods, 163 (70.8%) women ever used any of the contraceptive methods. Less than half (40.9%) had knowledge that contraceptive methods reduce the economic burden on the family. A negative attitude towards the practice of contraception was found among 11.7 percent of women in the study. When asking about present (last 1 year) practice of contraception, 29.1% not practiced any method of contraception, 25.6% used oral contraceptive pills (OCPs), and 27.8% used condoms.Conclusions: The study reveals good knowledge and favorable attitude of rural couples towards contraception. Contraceptive knowledge and practice were influenced by exposure to family planning messages. Women's education and counselling of couples can play an important role in adopting family planning methods

Further Studies on Antioxidant Potential and Protection of Pancreatic β-Cells by Embelia ribes in Experimental Diabetes

This study was designed to examine the antioxidant defense by ethanolic extract of Embelia ribes on streptozotocin-(40 mg/kg, intravenously, single-injection) induced diabetes in Wistar rats. Forty days of oral feeding the extract (100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) to diabetic rats resulted in significant (P < .01) decrease in blood glucose, blood glycosylated haemoglobin, serum lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, and increase in blood glutathione levels as compared to pathogenic diabetic rats. Further, the extract also significantly (P < .01) decreased the pancreatic thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) levels and significantly (P < .01) increased the superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione levels as compared to above levels in pancreatic tissue of pathogenic diabetic rats. The islets were shrunken in diabetic rats in comparison to normal rats. In the drug-treated diabetic rats, there was expansion of islets. The results of test drug were comparable to gliclazide (25 mg/kg, daily), a standard antihyperglycemic agent. The study concludes that Embelia ribes enhances the antioxidant defense against reactive oxygen species produced under hyperglycemic condition and this protects β-cells against loss, and exhibit antidiabetic property

Financial burden of stroke on family and caregiver in India: a literature review

As life expectancy increases, India will face enormous socioeconomic burden to meet the costs of integrated rehabilitation of subjects with stroke. Caring for stroke patients leads to caregiver (CG) strain and financial burden. The CG burden is perceived differently in the Indian background depending on the society and culture. Caregiving stress has the potential to hamper rehabilitation of the patients and is of vital importance both as a research topic and the focus of clinical care. Cost and burden of informal care giving are high rural Indian community. Financial stress was prominent and common among the socioeconomically weaker division. The financial costs associated with family caregiving were a significant factor in caregiving burden, both for the male and female caregivers. Despite the high financial burden, limited recent studies have focused on costs associated with stroke in the India. Establishing total stroke-related costs is essential to evaluate and support the health economic research on stroke systems of care. Stroke care giving studies may help to better understand care giving impact, and also to find the most effective interventions to improve the quality of life of stroke patients and their caregivers, reduce the burden and depression of caregivers. Policies and programs to alleviate the financial burden and to provide social and financial support for these family caregivers are equally important for both family caregivers and their care receivers.

Ectopic thoracic kidney in a child presenting with recurrent cough: a case report and review of literature

Ectopic thoracic kidney is a rare clinical entity in pediatric patients. It is usually an incidental finding on evaluation of patients with recurrent cough or mediastinal mass. Its clinical course is benign. We are presenting a case of right ectopic intrathoracic kidney diagnosed incidentally on contrast-enhanced computed tomography chest during evaluation of a child with recurrent cough.Keywords: mediastinal mass, recurrent cough, thoracic kidne

Identification of mirtrons in rice using MirtronPred: a tool for predicting plant mirtrons.

article i nfo Studies from flies and insects have reported the existence of a special class of miRNA, called mirtrons that are produced from spliced-out introns in a DROSHA-independent manner. The spliced-out lariat is debranched and refolded into a stem-loop structure resembling the pre-miRNA, which can then be processed by DICER into mature ~21 nt species. The mirtrons have not been reported from plants. In this study, we present Mir- tronPred, a web based server to predict mirtrons from intronic sequences. We have used the server to predict 70 mirtrons in rice introns that were put through a stringent selection filter to shortlist 16 best sequences. The prediction accuracy was subsequently validated by northern analysis and RT-PCR of a predicted Os- mirtron-109. The target sequences for this mirtron were also found in the rice degradome database. The pos- sible role of the mirtron in rice regulon is discussed. The MirtronPred web server is available at http://bioinfo. icgeb.res.in/mirtronPred

CDR1, a multidrug resistance gene from Candida albicans, contains multiple regulatory domains in its promoter and the distal AP-1 element mediates its induction by miconazole

We previously demonstrated that the CDR1 gene, encoding a multidrug transporter in Candida albicans, is differentially upregulated by various drugs and steroids. In order to get an insight into the molecular basis of the induction of this gene we analyzed its promoter region. The transcription start site was mapped to 63 nucleotides upstream of the initiating ATG. Reporter assays revealed the presence of four upstream activating and four upstream repressing sequence domains along the entire promoter. Like the native gene, promoter-luciferase recombinants showed enhanced activity in response to various stresses like drugs, human steroid hormones and heavy metals. Mutational analysis demonstrated that while the proximal promoter (−345/+1) contains all the regulatory domains required for its induction by various other stresses, the miconazole response is mediated via the distal promoter (−857/−1147), harboring an AP-1 site. The involvement of the AP-1 element in mediating the latter effect was evident by an increase in AP-1 binding activity following miconazole treatment

Infectious SIV resides in adipose tissue and induces metabolic defects in chronically infected rhesus macaques

Additional file 1. General method for isolation of stromal-vascular-fraction (AT-SVF) cells from adipose tissue of rhesus macaques, and subsequent analyses. (A) 30-60 mins collagenase digestion of solid adipose tissue samples from rhesus macaques is followed by washing and centrifugation, allowing for separation of mature adipocytes (floater fraction) from the stromal-vascular-fraction (AT-SVF) cells. AT-SVF cells were then analyzed by flow cytometry, nested PCR, and viral outgrowth assays, and floater fraction adipocytes analyzed for mRNA expression. (B) Sample flow cytometry gating schemes for examination of AT-SVF T cells, NKT cells, macrophages, and B cells

The phenotype of Floating-Harbor syndrome: Clinical characterization of 52 individuals with mutations in exon 34 of SRCAP

Background: Floating-Harbor syndrome (FHS) is a rare condition characterized by short stature, delays in expressive language, and a distinctive facial appearance. Recently, heterozygous truncating mutations in SRCAP were determined to be disease-causing. With the availability of a DNA based confirmatory test, we set forth to define the clinical features of this syndrome. Methods and results. Clinical information on fifty-two individuals with SRCAP mutations was collected using standardized questionnaires. Twenty-four males and twenty-eight females were studied with ages ranging from

Estimating global injuries morbidity and mortality : methods and data used in the Global Burden of Disease 2017 study

Background: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria. Methods: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation. In summary, these methods included estimating cause-specific mortality for every cause of injury, and then estimating incidence for every cause of injury. Non-fatal disability for each cause is then calculated based on the probabilities of suffering from different types of bodily injury experienced. Results: GBD 2017 produced morbidity and mortality estimates for 38 causes of injury. Estimates were produced in terms of incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, cause-specific mortality, years of life lost and disability-adjusted life-years for a 28-year period for 22 age groups, 195 countries and both sexes. Conclusions: GBD 2017 demonstrated a complex and sophisticated series of analytical steps using the largest known database of morbidity and mortality data on injuries. GBD 2017 results should be used to help inform injury prevention policy making and resource allocation. We also identify important avenues for improving injury burden estimation in the future

The burden of unintentional drowning : global, regional and national estimates of mortality from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study

Background Drowning is a leading cause of injury-related mortality globally. Unintentional drowning (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10 codes W65-74 and ICD9 E910) is one of the 30 mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive causes of injury-related mortality in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. This study's objective is to describe unintentional drowning using GBD estimates from 1990 to 2017. Methods Unintentional drowning from GBD 2017 was estimated for cause-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs), age, sex, country, region, Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile, and trends from 1990 to 2017. GBD 2017 used standard GBD methods for estimating mortality from drowning. Results Globally, unintentional drowning mortality decreased by 44.5% between 1990 and 2017, from 531 956 (uncertainty interval (UI): 484 107 to 572 854) to 295 210 (284 493 to 306 187) deaths. Global age-standardised mortality rates decreased 57.4%, from 9.3 (8.5 to 10.0) in 1990 to 4.0 (3.8 to 4.1) per 100 000 per annum in 2017. Unintentional drowning-associated mortality was generally higher in children, males and in low-SDI to middle-SDI countries. China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh accounted for 51.2% of all drowning deaths in 2017. Oceania was the region with the highest rate of age-standardised YLLs in 2017, with 45 434 (40 850 to 50 539) YLLs per 100 000 across both sexes. Conclusions There has been a decline in global drowning rates. This study shows that the decline was not consistent across countries. The results reinforce the need for continued and improved policy, prevention and research efforts, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.Peer reviewe