The study of thyroid dysfunction in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is the most common gynecological condition observed during many women's reproductive period. AUB affects the quality of life, causing distress. Most of the cases are undiagnosed or not properly diagnosed. Multiple reasons are causing AUB, one of them is thyroid dysfunction. Nowadays, thyroid testing is readily available, which helps in diagnosis and better management of AUB. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted with 124 AUB cases using simple random sampling after approval from the ethics committee. Results: Total thyroid dysfunction was noted in 32.26% of cases, and 70.16% were multiparous. About 34.1% of cases of menorrhagia and 54.2% of cases of oligomenorrhea had thyroid abnormalities. Conclusions: For appropriate management of AUB, testing of thyroid levels is necessary

Induction of labour using transcervical Foley's catheter with extra amniotic saline infusion versus intracervical prostaglandin E2 gel at term gestation: a comparative study

Background: The intentional commencement of cervical ripening and uterine contraction for the purpose of achieving delivery prior to the onset of spontaneous parturition is known as induction of labour. When the benefits to the mother or the foetus surpass the benefits of extending the pregnancy, it is indicated. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of a transcervical foley's catheter with extra amniotic saline infusion against intra cervical prostaglandin E2 gel for inducing labour in term pregnant women. Methods: From January 2020 to June 2021, a comparative study was undertaken at R.L. Jalappa Hospital and Research Centre. The study enrolled a total of 72 individuals. After obtaining informed consent from the patients who were admitted, and meeting the inclusion criteria, detailed history was collected, baseline investigations were done.  After clinical examination of the patient, by using the simple lottery method, patients were divided into group A (Extra amniotic saline infusion group with Foley’s catheter) and group B (Dinoprostone (PGE2 gel) group). Results: Prolonged gestational age, hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, and oligohydramnios were the most frequent causes for induction in the EASI group, accounting for 38.89%, 38.89%, and 22.22%, respectively. The dinoprostone group has 36.11%, 33.33%, and 25%, respectively. After induction, the majority of patients in the EASI group had a modified Bishop's score of 2. Conclusions: Our research found that PGE2 and EASI were equally effective in inducing labour

The association of pre-pregnancy body mass index and risk of pre-eclampsia

Background: Preeclampsia is a pregnancy-related condition characterized by new-onset hypertension and proteinuria. Preeclampsia is responsible for 20% to 80% of mortality among pregnant in developing countries. Preeclampsia may cause prematurity and fetal growth restriction. It is the most serious complication affecting 2-8% of all pregnancies. The mortality and morbidity rates among the babies of pre-eclampsia mothers is five times higher than that among babies born to healthy mothers. Objective: To find the association between pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index (BMI) and gestational weight gain with incidence of pre-eclampsia. Methods: Cross sectional Observational study was conducted among 140 cases. The study was conducted after obtaining approval from the ethics committee. Results: In this study, in 27.9% of cases overweight, and in 12.1% of cases obesity were seen. In 60.7% of cases severe preeclampsia, and 39.3% of cases mild preeclampsia was reported. Preeclampsia had no significant association with age, marital life, parity, but had a significant association with liquor, birth weight, and NICU admission. Conclusions: Pre pregnancy weight and Gestational weight gain were associated with high risk of preeclampsia

EXTRACTION OF BUILT-UP AREA USING HIGH RESOLUTION SENTINEL-2A AND GOOGLE SATELLITE IMAGERY

Accurate information about the built-up area in a city or town is essential for urban planners for proper planning of urban infrastructure facilities and other basic amenities. The normalized difference indices available in literature for built-up area extraction are mostly based on moderate resolution images such as Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and enhanced TM (ETM+) and may not be applicable for high resolution images such as Sentinel-2A. In the present study, an attempt has been made to extract the built-up area from Sentinel-2A satellite data of Chennai, India using normalized difference index (NDI) with different band combinations. It was found that the built-up area was clearly distinguishable when the index value ranges between −0.29 and −0.09 in blue and near-infrared (NIR) band combination. Post extraction editing using Google satellite imagery was also attempted to improve the extraction results. The results showed an overall accuracy of 90% and Kappa value of 0.785. Same approach when applied for another area also yields good results with overall accuracy of 92% and Kappa value of 0.83. As the proposed approach is simple to understand, yields accurate results and requires only open source data, the same can be used for extracting the built-up area using Sentinel-2A and Google satellite imagery

Is ward-level calculation of urban green space availability important?—A case study on Vellore city, India, using the histogram-based spectral discrimination approach

How much green space is available for individuals is a major question that city planners are generally interested in, and the present study aimed to address this issue in the context of Vellore, India, through two approaches, namely, the per capita and the geographical area approach. In existing studies, urban green space (UGS) was only calculated at the macro level, i.e., for the city as a whole. Micro-or ward-level analysis was not attempted before, and the present study carried out the same to get a clear picture of the amount of greenery available in each ward of a city. For this purpose, a two-step approach was proposed where the histograms of Google Earth (GE) images were analyzed first to check whether the green cover types such as trees, shrubs/grassland, and cropland were spectrally different. Then, classification techniques such as ISODATA, maximum likelihood, support vector machine (SVM), and object-based methods were applied to the GE images. It was found that SVM performed well in extracting different green cover types with the highest overall accuracy of 93% and Kappa coefficient of 0.881. It was found that when considering the city as a whole, the amount of UGS available is 42% of the total area, which is more than the recommended range of 20–40%. Similarly, the available UGS per person is 97.84 m2, which is far above the recommended 12 m2/person. However, the micro-level analysis revealed that some of the wards have not satisfied the criteria of per capita and percentage area, though the city as a whole has satisfied both the criteria. Thus, the results indicate the importance of calculating the urban green space availability at the ward level rather than the city level as the former gives a closer look at the surplus and deficit areas. The results of terrestrial LiDAR survey at individual tree level revealed that if trees are located adjacent to buildings or roads, it results in fewer heat islands compared to the case where there are no trees

Role of Modern Technologies and Internet of things in the field of Solid Waste Management

The process of handling solid waste becomes complex and tedious due to the urbanization and industrialization of the most developing and developed countries. These solid waste issues if it is not addressed properly it affects ecosystem and environment. There is a possibility of many health-oriented issues especially during the pandemic period covid-19. Most of the human beings are struggling with respiratory pulmonary diseases, asthma caused by these solid wastes. Most of the governments are also spending huge amount of money for labors, devices and some technologies to tackle these solid waste issues. There is also an opportunity for the government to generate revenue from these solid wastes by properly sorting these waste into recyclable, nonrecyclable and bio-degradable wastes. But when humans are involved in sorting these waste it will cause some diseases and hygienic problems. So,in order to address the above said issues in this work the role of modern technologies, algorithms and some Internet of things (IoT) methods are discussed. Implementing these technologies in the future will save huge amount of money spent by the government for the solid waste management activities

"Harnessing genomics to improve health in India" – an executive course to support genomics policy

BACKGROUND: The benefits of scientific medicine have eluded millions in developing countries and the genomics revolution threatens to increase health inequities between North and South. India, as a developing yet also industrialized country, is uniquely positioned to pioneer science policy innovations to narrow the genomics divide. Recognizing this, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics conducted a Genomics Policy Executive Course in January 2003 in Kerala, India. The course provided a forum for stakeholders to discuss the relevance of genomics for health in India. This article presents the course findings and recommendations formulated by the participants for genomics policy in India. METHODS: The course goals were to familiarize participants with the implications of genomics for health in India; analyze and debate policy and ethical issues; and develop a multi-sectoral opinion leaders' network to share perspectives. To achieve these goals, the course brought together representatives of academic research centres, biotechnology companies, regulatory bodies, media, voluntary, and legal organizations to engage in discussion. Topics included scientific advances in genomics, followed by innovations in business models, public sector perspectives, ethics, legal issues and national innovation systems. RESULTS: Seven main recommendations emerged: increase funding for healthcare research with appropriate emphasis on genomics; leverage India's assets such as traditional knowledge and genomic diversity in consultation with knowledge-holders; prioritize strategic entry points for India; improve industry-academic interface with appropriate incentives to improve public health and the nation's wealth; develop independent, accountable, transparent regulatory systems to ensure that ethical, legal and social issues are addressed for a single entry, smart and effective system; engage the public and ensure broad-based input into policy setting; ensure equitable access of poor to genomics products and services; deliver knowledge, products and services for public health. A key outcome of the course was the internet-based opinion leaders' network – the Indian Genome Policy Forum – a multi-stakeholder forum to foster further discussion on policy. CONCLUSION: We expect that the process that has led to this network will serve as a model to establish similar Science and Technology policy networks on regional levels and eventually on a global level

Seroprevalence of COVID antibodies in health-care population of tertiary care government hospital in South India

Background: The pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in a worldwide abrupt and significant rise in admissions for pneumonia with multiorgan diseases. Aims and Objective: To determine the positive prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in health-care professionals over 6 months. In addition, to make a subgroup analysis and estimate the age, gender, and workforce-based prevalence of SARS-CoV-2. Materials and Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 healthcare professionals during 6 months. After taking proper informed consent, the study was started. We included subjects aged ≥18 years in this study. Not receiving any other vaccine during the study, suspected or confirmed immunosuppressive condition, imaging confirmed COVID-19 or recent blood transfusions were excluded from the study. Results: Most patients were 26–30 years old. Out of 200 patients, 116 (58%) were males, and 84 (42%) were females. The total positivity of the titers amounts was 57%. In addition, the males had higher mean titers than the females, with 24.186 versus 13.304. Of the 116 males, 68 were positive (58.6%), and of the 84 females, 46 were positive (54.7%). The age-wise positivity of the titers was high among the 26–30 years of age group, of which, in the 53 people, 33 were seropositive, which is 62.2% of this age group and lowest in the 51–55 years age group, of which in the 23 participants 9 were positive (39.31%), and 14 were negative (60.85%). Conclusion: We concluded that male doctors and adults had a greater seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting that they are more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 through patient contact or surgical procedures

Selective Glitch Reduction Technique for Minimizing Peak Dynamic IR Drop

Abstract This paper proposes a glitch co mpensation technique which involves reducing glitch power in selected combinational cells to reduce peak current which contributes to dynamic voltage or IR drop. The proposed methodology can be seamlessly integrated to existing physical design flo ws. A glitch is an undesired transition that occurs before intended value in dig ital circuits. A glitch occurs in CMOS circu its when d ifferential delay at the inputs of a gate is greater than inertial delay, which results into increased gate switching and hence notable amount of power consumption. When such large nu mber of logic gates switch close to the same t ime they will contribute to power integrity challenge called pe ak dynamic IR drop. The glitch power is becoming more pro minent in lower technology nodes. Introduction of buffers at the input of the Logic gate may reduce glitches, but it results into large area overhead and dynamic power. In the proposed methodology we are using transmission gate as a compensation circuit to reduce extra leakage and dynamic power. A flo w is proposed for charactering the pass transistor logic to cater different delay values. The proposed methodology has been validated on a plac e and routed Multiply Accumulate (MA C) layout imp lemented using Synopsys SAED 9 0n m Generic library. Experimental results show 12% to 50% reduction in top 10 peak transient IR drop numbers with just 12% g litch power reduction in selected combinational cell instances. When compared to traditional on-chip decoupling capacitor (Decap) cells insertion method the proposed technique could reduce the peak IR drop numbers by the same amount with just 5% increase in total core capacitance