168 research outputs found
Seropositivity of Toxoplasmosis in Antenatal Women with Bad Obstetric History in a Tertiary-care Hospital of Andhra Pradesh, India
Toxoplasmosis is a well-documented cause of bad obstetric history (BOH) and a major reason of congenitally-acquired infection. The study was conducted to determine the seropositivity of toxoplasmosis in women with BOH, attending the antenatal clinic of the Mamata General Hospital, Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, India. The study subjects included 105 antenatal women with BOH and 105 antenatal women who had previous normal deliveries. A serological evaluation was carried out to determine the presence of Toxoplasma gondii-specific IgG and IgM antibodies, using commercial diagnostic kits, by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. The seropositivity for Toxoplasma was 49.52% in the study group compared to 12.38% in the control group. The difference in seropositivity was significant (p=0.00). The seroprevalence gradually increased with advancing age. Abortion (51.92%) was the commonest form of pregnancy wastage, followed by stillbirths (36.53%) and premature deliveries (7.69%). The seropositivity of toxoplasmosis was significantly higher in the study group than that in the control group, and the seropositivity played an important role in determining the foetal outcome. Considering the subclinical pattern of infection, routine serological test is recommended for all pregnant women for both IgG and IgM antibodies
Finite Element Based Vibration Analysis of a Nonprismatic Timoshenko Beam with Transverse Open Crack
AbstractThe present day structures and machineries are designed based on optimizing of multi-objectives such as maximum strength, maximum life, minimum weight and minimum cost. Due to this they are flexible and allow having a very high level of stresses. This leads to development of cracks in their elements. Many engineering structures may have structural defects such as cracks due to long-term service. So it is very much essential to know the property of structures and its response in various cases. The present article deals with finite element based vibration analysis of a nonprismatic cracked beam. The beam is modeled using the Timoshenko beam theory. The governing equation of motion is derived by the Hamilton's principle. In order to solve the governing equation two noded beam element with two degrees of freedom (DOF) per node is considered. In this work the effect of structural damping is also incorporated in the finite element model. The dynamic analysis is carried out by using state space model in time domain
Seropositivity of Toxoplasmosis in Antenatal Women with Bad Obstetric History in a Tertiary-care Hospital of Andhra Pradesh, India
Toxoplasmosis is a well-documented cause of bad obstetric history (BOH)
and a major reason of congenitally-acquired infection. The study was
conducted to determine the seropositivity of toxoplasmosis in women
with BOH, attending the antenatal clinic of the Mamata General
Hospital, Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, India. The study subjects included
105 antenatal women with BOH and 105 antenatal women who had previous
normal deliveries. A serological evaluation was carried out to
determine the presence of Toxoplasma gondii -specific IgG and IgM
antibodies, using commercial diagnostic kits, by the enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay method. The seropositivity for Toxoplasma was
49.52% in the study group compared to 12.38% in the control group. The
difference in seropositivity was significant (p=0.00). The
seroprevalence gradually increased with advancing age. Abortion
(51.92%) was the commonest form of pregnancy wastage, followed by
stillbirths (36.53%) and premature deliveries (7.69%). The
seropositivity of toxoplasmosis was significantly higher in the study
group than that in the control group, and the seropositivity played an
important role in determining the foetal outcome. Considering the
subclinical pattern of infection, routine serological test is
recommended for all pregnant women for both IgG and IgM antibodies
Nursing Personnel Planning for Rural Hospitals in Burdwan District, West Bengal, India, Using Workload Indicators of Staffing Needs
Lack of appropriate human resources planning is an important factor in
the inefficient use of the public health facilities. Workforce
projections can be improved by using objective methods of staffing
needs based on the workload and actual work undertaken by workers, a
guideline developed by Peter J. Shipp in collaboration with
WHO\u2014Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN). A
cross-sectional study was carried out to estimate the nursing stuff
requirement for the rural hospitals and provide a quantitative
description of imbalances, if there is any, in the allocation at the
district level during 2011. The average WISN turns out to be 0.35 for
entire district, which means only 35% of the required nurses is
available or 65% understaffed. So, there is an urgent need for more
allocations and deployment of staff so that workload can be tackled and
evenly distributed among all nursing personnel
Coverage and Awareness of and Compliance with Mass Drug Administration for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis in Burdwan District, West Bengal, India
India adopted WHO\u2019s strategy of repeated rounds of mass drug
administration (MDA) with diethylcarbamazine to eliminate lymphatic
filariasis. The present study attempted to assess the coverage and
awareness of and compliance with MDA for elimination of lymphatic
filariasis in Burdwan district of India, following MDA round in July
2010. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the four
randomly-selected clusters in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal,
India, covering 603 individuals from 154 households, using a
predesigned pretested schedule. The drug distribution coverage,
compliance, and effective coverage were 48.76 %, 70.07%, and 34.16%
respectively. Only 41.4% of the study population was aware of the MDA
activity. This evaluation study noted that MDA is restricted to tablet
distribution only. There is an urgent need to improve compliance with
drug intake through strengthening of the awareness programme involving
both government health workers and community volunteers
Availability and Use of Emergency Obstetric Care Services in Four Districts of West Bengal, India
Process indicators have been recommended for monitoring the
availability and use of emergency obstetric care (EmOC) services. A
health facility-based study was carried out in 2002 in four districts
of West Bengal, India, to analyze these process indicators. Relevant
records and registers for 2001 of all studied facilities in the
districts were reviewed to collect data using a pre-designed schedule.
The numbers of basic and comprehensive EmOC facilities were inadequate
in all the four districts compared to the minimum acceptable level.
Overall, 26.2% of estimated annual births took place in the EmOC
facilities (ranged from 16.2% to 45.8% in 4 districts) against the
required minimum of 15%. The rate of caesarean section calculated for
all expected births in the population varied from 3.5% to 4.4% in the
four districts with an overall rate of 4%, which is less than the
minimum target of 5%. Only 29.9% of the estimated number of
complications (which is 15% of all births) was managed in the EmOC
facilities. The combined case-fatality rate in the basic/comprehensive
EmOC facilities was 1.7%. Major obstetric complications contributed to
85.7% of maternal deaths, and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia was the most
common cause. It can be concluded that all the process indicators,
except proportion of deliveries in the EmOC facilities, were below the
acceptable level. Certain priority measures, such as making facilities
fully functional, effective referral and monitoring system, skill-based
training, etc., are to be emphasized to improve the situation
Assessing the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to chemical mixtures in the environment: the challenge ahead.
Lifestyle factors are responsible for a considerable portion of cancer incidence worldwide, but credible estimates from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) suggest that the fraction of cancers attributable to toxic environmental exposures is between 7% and 19%. To explore the hypothesis that low-dose exposures to mixtures of chemicals in the environment may be combining to contribute to environmental carcinogenesis, we reviewed 11 hallmark phenotypes of cancer, multiple priority target sites for disruption in each area and prototypical chemical disruptors for all targets, this included dose-response characterizations, evidence of low-dose effects and cross-hallmark effects for all targets and chemicals. In total, 85 examples of chemicals were reviewed for actions on key pathways/mechanisms related to carcinogenesis. Only 15% (13/85) were found to have evidence of a dose-response threshold, whereas 59% (50/85) exerted low-dose effects. No dose-response information was found for the remaining 26% (22/85). Our analysis suggests that the cumulative effects of individual (non-carcinogenic) chemicals acting on different pathways, and a variety of related systems, organs, tissues and cells could plausibly conspire to produce carcinogenic synergies. Additional basic research on carcinogenesis and research focused on low-dose effects of chemical mixtures needs to be rigorously pursued before the merits of this hypothesis can be further advanced. However, the structure of the World Health Organization International Programme on Chemical Safety 'Mode of Action' framework should be revisited as it has inherent weaknesses that are not fully aligned with our current understanding of cancer biology
Causes of genome instability: the effect of low dose chemical exposures in modern society.
Genome instability is a prerequisite for the development of cancer. It occurs when genome maintenance systems fail to safeguard the genome's integrity, whether as a consequence of inherited defects or induced via exposure to environmental agents (chemicals, biological agents and radiation). Thus, genome instability can be defined as an enhanced tendency for the genome to acquire mutations; ranging from changes to the nucleotide sequence to chromosomal gain, rearrangements or loss. This review raises the hypothesis that in addition to known human carcinogens, exposure to low dose of other chemicals present in our modern society could contribute to carcinogenesis by indirectly affecting genome stability. The selected chemicals with their mechanisms of action proposed to indirectly contribute to genome instability are: heavy metals (DNA repair, epigenetic modification, DNA damage signaling, telomere length), acrylamide (DNA repair, chromosome segregation), bisphenol A (epigenetic modification, DNA damage signaling, mitochondrial function, chromosome segregation), benomyl (chromosome segregation), quinones (epigenetic modification) and nano-sized particles (epigenetic pathways, mitochondrial function, chromosome segregation, telomere length). The purpose of this review is to describe the crucial aspects of genome instability, to outline the ways in which environmental chemicals can affect this cancer hallmark and to identify candidate chemicals for further study. The overall aim is to make scientists aware of the increasing need to unravel the underlying mechanisms via which chemicals at low doses can induce genome instability and thus promote carcinogenesis
- …