Comparative study of capillary blood glucose estimation by glucometer and venous plasma glucose estimation in women undergoing the one step DIPSI test (diabetes in pregnancy study group India) for screening and diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as carbohydrate intolerance of variable severity with onset or first recognition during pregnancy. The importance of GDM is that two generations are at risk of developing diabetes in the future. Aim was to study the merits and demerits of capillary blood glucose estimation by glucometer over venous plasma glucose estimation while performing DIPSI test.Methods: It was a hospital based clinical study. 1000 patients were enrolled between 24-28 weeks of gestation and DIPSI test was performed. Patient was instructed to come irrespective of fasting. 75 g glucose dissolved in 200-400 ml of water and patient was asked to drink in 5 minutes. Venous blood was drawn after 2 hours, capillary blood sugar also was measured at the same time by glucometer.Results: Sensitivity of capillary blood sugar (CBS) method in detecting GDM is 100% as compared to venous plasma glucose (VPG) and specificity is 99.46% as compared to VPG. Considering the agreement between two methods for diagnosis of GDM, equal sensitivity of both methods and small number of false positive cases detected by CBS method, due to almost equal specificity (99.46%), CBS method by glucometer can be recommended as an alternative to VPG method as a screening and diagnostic test for GDM.Conclusions: It is appropriate and feasible to offer capillary blood sugar sampling by DIPSI test for screening and diagnosis of GDM. The prevalence of GDM in our study is 8% by capillary blood sugar sampling and 7.5% by venous plasma glucose sampling according to DIPSI test.

Study of maternal, fetal and neonatal outcomes in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus in a tertiary care hospital

Background: GDM is defined as carbohydrate intolerance of variable severity with onset or first recognition during pregnancy. Women with gestational diabetes are characterized by a relatively diminished insulin secretion and pregnancy induced insulin resistance primarily present in the skeletal muscle tissue. Normal pregnancy is a diabetogenic state characterized by exaggerated rate and amount of insulin release, associated with decreased sensitivity to insulin at cellular levels. The objective of the study was to study the maternal, the fetal and the neonatal outcomes of treated patients of GDM in present study.Methods: It was a hospital based clinical study. 1000 patients were enrolled between 24-28 weeks of gestation and DIPSI test was performed. Diagnosis of GDM was done using DIPSI criteria. 80 patients were diagnosed with GDM and followed till delivery to study the maternal, fetal and neonatal outcome.Results: Elderly patients, patients with previous history of GDM, patients with family history of diabetes, patients with high BMI and patients with polyhydramnios are at high risk for GDM.Conclusions: Hypertensive disorders and preterm birth are known to be higher with GDM are similar to the non-GDM group suggesting that early diagnosis and prompt treatment and maintaining strict glycemic control by patient may be beneficial. GDM can be managed well on MNT and lifestyle modifications, only few patients required insulin therapy. In spite of appropriate glycemic control, the incidence of macrosomia found to be high in GDM group. Sudden unexplained stillbirth can occur in spite of strict glycemic control. Neonatal complications have occurred despite well glycemic control

Role of ICTs in improving drought scenario management in India

Drought is a natural phenomenon that affects social, economic and environmental sectors. It is caused due to low or no rainfall in the specific region and for some duration of time. Reduced soil moisture and ground water level are the other causes for drought. Based on its intensity, drought has impacts on various sectors like agriculture, transportation, forest fire, environment and many more. Agriculture is the major sector being affected by drought resulting in low crop production and having great detriment to economy of the country. In this paper, an attempt is made to study the different causes and effects of drought, their impact on agricultural sector, various strategies for drought monitoring, prevention and management keeping the focus on Indian Agricultural Sector. This study examines the extent of use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for drought assessment, prediction, preparedness and management scenario in India. The paper aims in portraying how the application of ICT in drought events is helpful in managing drought and thus helpful for researchers and farmers as well

Prevalence of Helminthic Infection in Capra hircus L. from Ahmednagar District (M.S.)

The present study deals with the prevalence of helminthic infection in Capra hircus during period of July 2008 to June 2009 from Ahmednager district (M.S.). Out of 300 samples examined 255 (85%) found to be infected with the helminth parasites. The seasonal variation of gastro-intestinal helminthic infection shows the higher prevalence occurs in monsoon (95%) followed by winter (87%) and summer (73%) because of easy dispersal of larvae in pasture resulting is increased in contact with the host and the parasites. Among the helminth parasites found the maximum incidence occurs is of cestode parasites in all seasons (48.33%) followed by nematodes (26.66%) and trematode (10%) respectively

COMPARISON OF PIXEL AND OBJECT-BASED CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUES FOR GLACIER FACIES EXTRACTION

Glacier facies are zones of snow on a glacier that have certain specific spectral characteristics that enable their characterization. The accuracy of their extraction will determine the end accuracy of the distributed mass balance model calibrated by this information. Therefore, coarse to medium resolution satellites are not preferable for this particular function as the data derived from such sensors will potentially blur out the minute spatial variations on the surface of a glacier. Very high resolution (VHR) sensors (such as, WorldView (WV)-1, 2, 3) are thus much more suited for this particular task. Hence, this study aims to extract the available glacier facies on the Sutri Dhaka glacier, Himalayas, using very high-resolution WorldView-2 (WV-2) imagery. Extensive pre-processing of the imagery was performed to prepare the data for this purpose. The steps incorporated for this purpose consist of 1) Data Calibration, 2) Mosaicking, 3) Pan Sharpening, 4) Generation of 3D surface, and 5) Digitization. Using image classification as the primary method of information extraction, this study tests the ever-popular pixel-based classification technique against the uprising object-based classification technique. In doing so, this study aims to determine the most accurate technique of information extraction for the WV-2 imagery in the given scenario. The presence of unique bands (Coastal (0.40–0.45 μm), Red Edge (0.705–0.745 μm), NIR-1 (0.770–0.895 μm) and NIR-2 (0.86–1.04 μm) in the multispectral range of WV-2, allows this study to perform facies classification through the development of customized spectral index ratios (SIRs) in the object-based domain. Establishment of thresholds was hence necessitated for information extraction through the developed SIRs. Three supervised classifiers, namely, a) Mahalanobis distance, b) Maximum likelihood, and c) Minimum distance to mean, were then used to perform classification, thereby allowing a comparative analysis between the classification schemes. Accuracy assessment for each classification scheme was performed using error matrices. The object-based approach achieved an overall accuracy of 90% (κ = 0.88) and the highest overall accuracy among the pixel-based classification methods is 78.57% (κ = 0.75). The results clearly portray that the object-based method delivered much higher accuracy than the pixel-based methods. The carry home message is that future studies must examine the transferability and accuracy of the customized SIRs in varying scenarios, as different scenarios will require varying threshold adjustments. Forthcoming studies can also develop sensor specific and unique indices for other sensors that are suitable for such applications

Impact and Awareness of Soil Health Card on Soybean Production Technology in Ujjain block of Ujjain District, M.P, India

The SHC is a simple document, which contains useful data on soil based on chemical analysis of the soil to describe soil health in terms of its nutrient availability and its physical and chemical properties. The SHC is a simple document, which contains useful data on soil based on chemical analysis of the soil to describe soil health in terms of its nutrient availability and its physical and chemical properties. An amount of Rs 568 crore (US$89 million) was allocated by the government for the scheme. In 2016 Union budget of India,100 crore (US$16 million) had been allocated to states for making soil health cards and set up labs. The target for 2015–16 was to collect 100 lakh soil samples and test these for issue of soil health cards. The government plans to distribute 14 crore soil health cards by 2017. it is therefore, important to find out the impact and awareness associated with farmer towards the usefulness and application of Soil Health Card on their agricultural production, diversification and cropping pattern. Considering the above points, an effort will be made to conduct study with the following objective with 120 beneficiaries of KVK Ujjain, M.P. The main findings is majority of beneficiaries were found to have high level of awareness about various components of soybean production technology followed by medium and low level of awareness about various components of Soybean production technology. Introduction Soil is one of the elements required for farming as it provides nutrients to the plants. Healthy soil containing all the elements for growth and development of crop and on the other hand soil deprived of one or more elements either reduces production or degrades quality of crops. Proportion and quantity of macro and micro nutrients refers to the soil health. As far as agriculture production is concerned, soil health plays a vital role in ensuring sustainable production with optimizing the utilization of fertilizers and reducing its wastage. Soil Health Card (SHC) is a scheme launched by the Government of India in February 2015 in Gujarat. The SHC is a simple document, which contains useful data on soil based on chemical analysis of the soil to describe soil health in terms of its nutrient availability and its physical and chemical properties. status of farmers. Madhya Pradesh is known as the Soybean bowl of India, because major chunk of Soybean production is contributed by Madhya Pradesh State alone. Nutrients are essential for plants' growth and development. When soil nutrients are missing or in short supply, plants suffer from nutrient deficiency and stop growing. Then, application of fertilizers to soils as per requirement is very important to provide balanced nutrients to the plants grown on it. Considering the growing importance of soil testing

Security Requirement Analysis of Blockchain-based E-Voting Systems

In democratic countries such as India, voting is a fundamental right given to citizens of their countries. Citizens need to physically present and cast their vote in ballot-paper-based voting systems. Most of the citizens fail to fulfill this constraint and have stayed away from their fundamental duty. Electronic-voting systems are often considered one efficient alternative in such situations. Blockchain Technology is an emerging technology that can provide a real solution as it is characterized by immutable, transparent, anonymous, and decentralized properties. This paper presents a security requirement analysis for e-voting systems and evaluates blockchain technology against these requirements

Comparison of efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of clotrimazole 1% cream and sertaconazole 2% cream in patients suffering from of mild to moderate tinea corporis, attending tertiary care hospital out-patient department: a randomized, open-labeled, comparative, parallel group trial

Background: Tinea corporis is a common dermatophytic infection of the body involving keratin layer of skin. This lesion presents as an annular plaque with an advancing border along with central clearing. Clotrimazole is topical, conventional imidazole antifungal drug and has given good efficacy in tinea corporis. Sertaconazole is new topical imidazole antifungal claimed to be superior to old topical imidazoles in tinea corporis. The aim of this study was to compare efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness of topical antifungals, clotrimazole 1% cream and sertaconazole 2% cream in patients suffering from mild to moderate tinea corporis attending out-patient department of tertiary care hospital in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.Methods: This was a prospective, comparative, randomized trial with 2 parallel treatment arms of 4 weeks duration. Patients were diagnosed on the basis of clinical evaluation and microscopic findings of KOH mount. Hundred patients were randomly assigned into two groups of clotrimazole 1% cream, and sertaconazole 2% cream with 50 patients in each group. Evaluation was carried out at baseline, 1st week, 2nd week and 4th week for efficacy parameters viz. itching, erythema and scaling, physician’s global assessment (PGA), safety and cost effectiveness.Results: Topical sertaconazole 2% cream was highly efficacious and superior to clotrimazole 1% cream in improvement of clinical parameters, PGA and mycological cure at the end of the treatment phase. At end of the follow-up phase both the trial drugs were effective with no recurrence or relapse of tinea corporis. However, clotrimazole 1% cream was safe and cheaper.Conclusions: Topical clotrimazole 1% cream and sertaconazole 2% were effective and well tolerated in patients of tinea corporis. Effectiveness of sertaconazole was early and superior with tolerable side-effects. However, clotrimazole was cost-effective