Provider imposed restrictions to clients’ access to family planning in urban Uttar Pradesh, India: a mixed methods study

BACKGROUND: Medical barriers refer to unnecessary policies or procedures imposed by health care providers that are not necessarily medically advised; these restrictions impede clients’ access to family planning (FP). This mixed methods study investigates provider imposed barriers to provision of FP using recent quantitative and qualitative data from urban Uttar Pradesh, India. METHODS: Baseline quantitative data were collected in six cities in Uttar Pradesh, India from service delivery points (SDP), using facility audits, exit interviews, and provider surveys; for this study, the focus is on the provider surveys. More than 250 providers were surveyed in each city. Providers were asked about the FP methods they provide, and if they restrict clients’ access to each method based on age, parity, partner consent, or marital status. For the qualitative research, we conducted one-on-one interviews with 21 service providers in four of the six cities in Uttar Pradesh. Each interview lasted approximately 45 minutes. RESULTS: The quantitative findings show that providers restrict clients’ access to spacing and long-acting and permanent methods of FP based on age, parity, partner consent and marital status. Qualitative findings reinforce that providers, at times, make judgments about their clients’ education, FP needs and ability to understand FP options thereby imposing unnecessary barriers to FP methods. CONCLUSIONS: Provider restrictions on FP methods are common in these urban Uttar Pradesh sites. This means that women who are young, unmarried, have few or no children, do not have the support of their partner, or are less educated may not be able to access or use FP or their preferred method. These findings highlight the need for in-service training for staff, with a focus on reviewing current guidelines and eligibility criteria for provision of methods

Intraoperative Autotriggered Pressure Support Ventilation Resistant to Increased Flow Trigger Threshold

Oscillations from cardiac pulsations are normally transmitted to mediastinal structures without any consequence. Autotriggering (AT) of mechanical ventilation occurs when an inspiratory trigger, typically negative inspiratory flow in anesthesia ventilators, is met in the absence of patient effort. AT can lead to respiratory alkalosis, opioid overdose, prolonged mechanical ventilation, and lung hyperinflation. This entity has been reported in both critical care and operating room environments. Increasing the flow trigger usually resolves AT in all cases. We report a case of AT that failed to respond to increasing the flow trigger threshold to its maximal value on the GE Datex-Ohmeda Avance S5® anesthesia station

DNA fingerprinting of Musa cultivars with oligodeoxyribonucleotide probes specific for simple repeat motifs

Using synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide probes against restriction-digested genomic DNA, we have established DNA fingerprinting of Musa cultivars. Of all the enzymes used, Eco RI and Hin dIII were found to be most informative, giving rise to individual specific band patterns with oligonucleotide probes of 15- to 18-base residues. Of the several probes and enzyme combinations used, the 15mer GACA probe with Eco RI and Hin dIII digests revealed a maximal level of polymorphism, and the probability of obtaining an identical band pattern between any two random genotypes was calculated to be 1.50 × 10-9 and 1.59 × 10-9, respectively. Oligonucleotide probes longer than 22 residues were also used but did not hybridize. The present approach is useful for cultivar identification and for overall genome analysis to establish relatedness among the various accessions of the Musa germ-plasm originating from different geographic locations. The relevance of using synthetic oligonucleotide probes based on simple repeat motifs for achieving DNA fingerprinting pattern is discussed

Tung et al_Oikos_2017_DryadData

This .xlsx file contains dispersal propensity and ability data for the selected (VB) and control (VBC) flies at three different time points. There were four replicate populations each of VB and VBC and for each of these populations, there were three measurement replicates. For each measurement replicate, we counted the number of male and female flies separately

Data from: Simultaneous evolution of multiple dispersal components and kernel

Global climate is changing rapidly and is accompanied by large-scale fragmentation and destruction of habitats. Since dispersal is the first line of defense for mobile organisms to cope with such adversities in their environment, it is important to understand the causes and consequences of evolution of dispersal. Although dispersal is a complex phenomenon involving multiple dispersal-components like propensity (tendency to leave the natal patch) and ability (to travel long distances), the relationship between these traits is not always straight-forward, it is not clear whether these traits can evolve simultaneously or not, and how their interactions affect the overall dispersal profile. To investigate these issues, we subjected four large (n ∼ 2400) outbred populations of Drosophila melanogaster to artificial selection for increased dispersal, in a setup that mimicked increasing habitat fragmentation over 33 generations. The propensity and ability of the selected populations were significantly greater than the non-selected controls and the difference persisted even in the absence of proximate drivers for dispersal. The dispersal kernel evolved to have significantly greater standard deviation and reduced values of skew and kurtosis, which ultimately translated into the evolution of a greater frequency of long-distance dispersers (LDDs). We also found that although sex-biased dispersal exists in D. melanogaster, its expression can vary depending on which dispersal component is being measured and the environmental condition under which dispersal takes place. Interestingly though, there was no difference between the two sexes in terms of dispersal evolution. We discuss possible reasons for why some of our results do not agree with previous laboratory and field studies. The rapid evolution of multiple components of dispersal and the kernel, expressed even in the absence of stress, indicates that dispersal evolution cannot be ignored while investigating eco-evolutionary phenomena like speed of range expansion, disease spread, evolution of invasive species and destabilization of metapopulation dynamics

Effect of Zolpidem in the Aftermath of Traumatic Brain Injury: An MEG Study

In the past two decades, many studies have shown the paradoxical efficacy of zolpidem, a hypnotic used to induce sleep, in transiently alleviating various disorders of consciousness such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), dystonia, and Parkinson’s disease. The mechanism of action of this effect of zolpidem is of great research interest. In this case study, we use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate a fully conscious, ex-coma patient who suffered from neurological difficulties for a few years due to traumatic brain injury. For a few years after injury, the patient was under medication with zolpidem that drastically improved his symptoms. MEG recordings taken before and after zolpidem showed a reduction in power in the theta-alpha (4–12 Hz) and lower beta (15–20 Hz) frequency bands. An increase in power after zolpidem intake was found in the higher beta/lower gamma (20–43 Hz) frequency band. Source level functional connectivity measured using weighted-phase lag index showed changes after zolpidem intake. Stronger connectivity between left frontal and temporal brain regions was observed. We report that zolpidem induces a change in MEG resting power and functional connectivity in the patient. MEG is an informative and sensitive tool to detect changes in brain activity for TBI

An animation-and-chirplet based approach to intruder classification using PIR sensing

The development of a Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensing based intrusion detection system is presented here having the ability to reject vegetative clutter and distinguish between human and animal intrusions. This has potential application to reducing human-animal conflicts in the vicinity of a wildlife park. The system takes on the form of a sensor-tower platform (STP) and was developed in-house. It employs a sensor array that endows the platform with a spatial-resolution capability. Given the difficulty of collecting data involving animal motion, a simulation tool was created with the aid of Blender and OpenGL software that is capable of quickly generating streams of human and animal-intrusion data. The generated data was then examined to identify a suitable collection of features that are useful in classification. The features selected corresponded to parameters that model the received signal as the superimposition of a fixed number of chirplets, an energy signature and a cross-correlation parameter. The resultant feature vector was then passed on to a Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classification. This approach to classification was validated by making use of real-world data collected by the STP which showed both STP design as well as classification technique employed to be quite effective. The average classification accuracy with both real and simulated data was in excess of 94%