Maternal Health in Haryana: Evidences from NFHS

The paper is based on National Family Health Survey (NFHS) Haryana data collected during third and fourth round of survey. In terms of maternal health care indicators like ANC, IFA consumption, TT, assisted births, institutional births and PNC, Haryana performed better than India for parameters like TT, assisted deliveries and PNC; at par for IFA tablets and lower for ANC and institutional deliveries. Punjab was ahead of Haryana in terms of all these parameters. All these maternal health care indicators had a positive relationship with the raise in the educational level of the women. With the education the awareness level of women gets enhanced and they understand the importance of vital factors than their uneducated counterparts. Our policy planners and programme implementers should keep this important point well in mind that education is the key to easy eradication of all these problems and education of women will assist in achieving better results

Functioning of ASHAs under National Health Mission in Punjab: An Appraisal

The present paper ascertains the functional efficacy of ASHAs and suggests measures for the optimization of their functioning in Punjab. For carrying out the study, different phases included random selection of three districts followed by two health blocks from each district and three sub centres from each block and subsequently one village from each sub centre. List of eligible women who had delivered a baby during the last three months prior to the survey was prepared and at last stage, five women from each village were selected at random. The findings revealed that the norms, including the age limit, educational qualification, residence and marital status set for the selection of ASHAs revealed clear adherence of the NHM guidelines. However two-thirds of the ASHAs were covering a population of more than 1,000 persons. About 90 percent of the ASHAs couldn’t specify their job responsibilities promptly on the activities related to spreading health awareness among adolescents, promoting hygiene practices, generating awareness on preventive measures on RTI/STI, HIV/AIDS, tobacco and alcoholism. About 94 percent of ASHA workers had received drug kit. However there were delays in the replenishment of drugs. As per NHM guidelines, no drug kit has AYUSH medications in it. Inter-sectoral collaboration among the ASHAs, ANMs, PRImembers and AWWs was more or less satisfactory even though ASHAs intervention in VHSNC meeting was not encouraging due to non-cooperation of other stakeholders. For strengthening of the ASHA programme, it is essential that the factors discouraging them are addressed properly

Indirect signs of anterior cruciate ligament tear on MRI knee: a retrospective study

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament is the most common ligament tear in knee and its primary role is to provide stability to the knee joint. Aim of study is to describe various secondary signs that are helpful in diagnosing partial/complete ACL tear. MRI offers distinct advantages over arthroscopy as a means of evaluating the ACL. MRI evaluation is effective in preventing unnecessary arthroscopy by assessing the severity of ACL tear and coexisting injuries. Methods: In this retrospective study 30 cases of partial/complete ACL tear were studied over a period of six months using Siemens Magnetom Essenza 1.5T MRI scanner in Srinivas institute of medical sciences and research centre, Mangalore. Results: To establish the sensitivity and specificity of indirect signs at MR imaging of Anterior Cruciate Ligament in 30 patients (18 with complete and 12 with partial thickness tear). The indirect signs were as follows: Bone Contusions (70%); Buckling of PCL (72%); Posterior displacement of lateral meniscus (54%); Anterior displacement of tibia (28%); pericruciate fat pad (86%); Wavy patellar tendon sign (28%) and associated joint effusion (90%). Conclusions: ACL ligament is the most commonly disrupted ligament in knee seen in radiology and orthopedic practice. A significant percentage of partial tears will progress to a functionally complete ACL tear. MRI helps guide the treatment decision process by demonstrating the extent of ACL injury and secondary signs make the accuracy of diagnosis stronger

Exploring shape memory alloys in haptic wearables for visually impaired people

Wearable haptic assistive devices can provide tactile information to visually impaired people (VIP) to support independent living. However, electromechanical haptic feedback has a number of disadvantages, including hardware being relatively heavy, large, and producing excessive sound. Here, we present a design-driven investigation of the potential of shape memory alloy-based haptic feedback for VIP. We followed an iterative approach, focusing on hands-on material explorations, in which we identified challenges and subsequent solutions that designers of SMA-based wearable haptic assistive devices may be faced with when incorporating SMAs in their designs. We present several prototype iterations and an initial evaluation with VIP to offer insights into the potential of SMA-based wearable haptic devices for VIP

The Superhydrophobic Boat

The purpose of this project is to successfully design and construct a boat hull while minimizing the amount of solid material in contact with the water. If successful, this experiment could serve as a first step in designing more efficient vessels through the reduction of the water drag force on the object. The approach to this project involved determining the optimal wire mesh and coating combination for the boat hull using both computational methods and experiment.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1052/thumbnail.jp

LOW LATENCY 5G/LTE MOBILE FRONTHAUL TRAFFIC IN TDMPON/XGS-PON NETWORKS

Ensuring low latency in a passive optical network (PON) environment for a mobile fronthaul use case is critical and raises a number of challenges. To address those types of challenges, techniques are presented herein that support, among other things, the coordination between a PON scheduler and a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Fifth Generation (5G) scheduler where the expected traffic in an uplink direction is intimated in advance to the PON scheduler. Such advance knowledge of a bandwidth scheduling requirement in an upstream direction eliminates, for example, the serialization of scheduler latency. Aspects of the techniques presented herein encompass, among other things, the development of a phase relationship between a PON superframe counter (SFC) and a time service, the determination of a bandwidth demand, the exchange of developed information (employing, for example, a variable-sized extension header or a fixed-sized custom header and vendor-specific message types), the creation of a mapping between a transmission container (TCONT) and a flow identifier, etc

The role of extracellular proteases in stromal-epithelial interactions in gastric cancer

Cancers of the upper gastrointestinal tract present at an advanced stage and carry a poor prognosis. Oesophageal and gastric tumours have a rich stroma composed of vascular cells, immune cells, and myofibroblasts, which promotes tumour growth, invasion and metastasis. In addition, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are recruited from the bone marrow to the tumour stroma; the mechanisms underpinning this have not yet been defined. Extracellular proteases play a role in cell migration, invasion, and cell signalling and are known to influence cancer growth in conflicting ways. Myofibroblasts present in normal tissue differ from those found in cancer. Cancer-associated myofibroblasts (CAMs) are known to modulate extracellular protease activity by secreting plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), an inhibitor of the serine protease urokinase plasminogen activator, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). This investigation studies the role of PAI-1 in gastric cancer and assesses the contribution of myofibroblast-derived MMPs to tumour growth. Finally, the role of chemerin in recruiting MSCs has been investigated. The expression of PAI-1 in myofibroblasts was found to be higher than in gastric cancer cells. Overexpression of PAI-1 in gastric cancer cells resulted in decreased cell adhesion and decreased tumour growth in an in vivo subcutaneous xenograft model of gastric tumour growth. The addition of gastric CAMs potentiated the growth of gastric cancer subcutaneous xenografts. This was not accounted for by differences in cell proliferation rate, apoptosis or final stromal content. Xenografts containing CAMs suppress the growth of a contralateral xenograft without CAMs, demonstrating that a long-range signal can be generated as a result of stromal-epithelial interactions. MMP and cathepsin activity was compared between xenografts containing myofibroblasts to those without. MMP activity is increased in xenografts injected with CAMs, compared to those injected with myofibroblasts taken from normal stomach or those with gastric cancer cells alone. In an organotypic co-culture system, MMP inhibition resulted in a decrease in gastric cancer cell invasion. The injection of fluorescently labelled MSCs injected resulted in homing of these cells to subcutaneous oesophageal tumours containing CAMs. Antagonism at the ChemR23 receptor inhibited this MSC homing to oesophageal xenografts containing CAMs. This work emphasises the importance of assessing the contribution of specific proteases and their inhibitors in gastric cancer. The stroma is an important contributor to extracellular protease activity and myofibroblasts contribute both proteases and their inhibitors to the tumour microenvironment, resulting in the modulation of tumour growth and cell adhesion. MSCs are recruited to oesophageal tumours via a novel signalling pathway

Prevalence, Detection, and Management of the Metabolic Syndrome in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction: Role of an Obesity-Centric Definition

Background. We sought to determine and compare the prevalence of the Metabolic Syndrome (MS) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) utilizing the new International Diabetes Federation (IDF) definition with the older National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) definition. We also examined the clinical utility of MS in this context. Methods. A total of 107 consecutive patients with AMI were prospectively evaluated for MS. Fasting lipids obtained at admission and fasting glucose at discharge were used. A postdischarge folder audit verified rates of discharge coding and implementation of specific management strategies for MS. Results. Baseline patient characteristics included: mean age 59 ± 13 years; males 80%; diabetes 19%; mean BMI 29.7 ± 8.4 kg/m2. MS prevalence was 54% by the IDF definition and 49% by the NCEP definition, with good agreement between definitions: κ = 0.664, P < .001. Factors predictive of MS after multivariate analysis included: hypertension, fasting glucose, waist circumference, and serum HDL (all P < .05). Despite the high prevalence, MS was recognized at discharge in only 1 patient, and referral for exercise and/or weight-loss programs was undertaken in 5 patients. Conclusion. There is a high prevalence of MS utilizing contemporary definitions in patients with AMI: 54% by the IDF definition and 49% by NCEP criteria. Despite the high prevalence, MS was under-recognized and under-treated in this population