A Comparative Study to Assess the Competency among Nurses in Giving Neonatal Skin Care in Selected Government and Private Hospitals in Delhi and to Disseminate TNAI Guidelines 2017 on Neonatal Skin Care

Neonatal skin care is an important clinical concern for nurses who care for newborns, including well, fullterm, healthy premature and extremely premature neonates. Skin performs a vital role in the newborn period. It provides a protective barrier that assists in the prevention of infection, facilitates thermoregulation and helps control insensible water loss and electrolyte balance. Other functions include tactile sensation and protection against toxins. Routine care practices including bathing, application of monitoring devices, intravenous (IV) catheter insertion and removal, tape application, and exposure to potentially toxic substances disrupt the normal barrier function and predispose both premature and term newborn to skin injury. The skin of the full-term newborn is coated with vernix caseosa, a cheese-like substance that contains sebum from sebaceous glands, broken-off lanugo and desquamated cells from amnion, as well as water. Skin care practices play an important role in the health of well newborns and hospitalized neonates. Fortunately, for many aspects of neonatal skin care, there exit evidence or consensus-based recommendations to guide best practices

Low molecular weight heparin prophylaxis: a boon for women with history of placental mediated complications

Background: Prevention of placental mediated pregnancy complication is likely the best approach to decrease maternal mortality and morbidity. Anticoagulation therapy represents a good preventive option. Methods: A prospective randomized case control study was conducted at Safdarjang hospital. Patients were recruited from Sept. 2011 till May 2012 and followed till delivery. Thirty cases & controls were enrolled which comprised of non- thrombophilic patients with previous history of severe preeclampsia, Fetal Growth Restriction (FGR), severe placental abruption, stillbirth after 20 weeks. Study group received LMWH according to weight subcutaneously, once daily started at < 15 weeks till 36 weeks of gestation. Maternal outcomes were observed in both groups.Results: Incidence of stillbirth and abruption were significantly lower in study group (0 versus 3.3%, P = 0.05; and 0 versus 20%, P = 0.01). The respective incidence of severe preeclampsia and FGR were 6.6% versus 40% (P = 0.04) and 6.6% versus 30 % (P = 0.02). There was reduction of 72.7% of total adverse outcome.Conclusions: Prophylactic LMWH before 15 weeks of gestation decreases the incidence of placental mediated complications in non thrombophilic pregnant women who had previously suffered with these complications

Self-monitoring, Cultural Training and Prior International Work Experience as Predictors of Cultural Intelligence - a Study of Indian Expatriates

The present study examined the role of self-monitoring, expatriate training, and prior international work experience on the cultural intelligence of expatriates. The data was collected from 223 Indian expatriates through a questionnaire survey. The results of data analysis indicated that self-monitoring has a significant impact on the cultural intelligence of the expatriates. Further analysis was done to examine the effect of these independent variables on individual dimensions of cultural intelligence. The findings signify that self-monitoring has a significant effect on all the three cultural dimensions, namely, cognitive, emotional/motivational and behavioral, and that expatriate training has a significant impact on the emotional/motivational dimension, but not on the other two. Prior international work experience was found not to have a significant effect on cultural intelligence and its dimensions. These findings provide significant insights into organizations for selecting and training the expatriates leading to their effective adjustment and performance in a different culture context. This paper contributes to expatriate management literature highlighting the effect of personality variables along with expatriate training. Further, it is a contribution to the research in cultural intelligence which is a relatively nascent area of research

TO STUDY THE EFFECT OF HUMAN HAIR MIXED WITH TYRE WASTE (RUBBER) ON PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE

Hair reinforced concrete mixed with rubber offers a practical and economical method for overcoming micro-cracks and similar type of deficiencies. Fibres are usually used in concrete to control plastic shrinkage and dry shrinkage cracking and also to lower the permeability of concrete. This is an attempt to find the possibilities of using hair as fibre reinforcement in concrete, thereby forming an alternative way for the safe management of hair waste. Present studies has been undertaken to study the effect of human hair mixed  compressive, crushing, flexural strength and cracking control to economise concrete and to reduce environmental problem. In the experiment we have added human hair fibres to the concrete mixed with Rubber and studied the strength properties of concrete with the variation in Rubber content. i.e., to study the properties of concrete (M40 Grade ) for fibre content of 1.5% and rubber content of 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% at 7 days, 14 days, 28days.  For each combination of proportions of concrete one beam and three cubes are tested for their mechanical properties. By testing of cubes and beams we found that there is an increment in the various properties and strength of concrete by the addition of human hair as fibre reinforcement and partial replacement of rubber as coarse aggregate. For the experiment, we have casted 45 cubes, 15 beams and 15 cylinders respectively

Traditional knowledge-based agricultural practices in Tribal dominated District Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh

Traditional knowledge is the backbone of the agricultural system of any country. These traditional knowledge-based agricultural practices were phased out and replaced with modern agricultural practices. However, in the present scenario, these time tested traditional practices again have made a comeback due to their ability to sustain and overcome the obstacles posed by anthropogenic activities, land degradation, excessive and rampant usage of fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides, etc. In spite of this traditional knowledge has been confined to some secluded areas in particular among the indigenous, tribal, forest-dwelling communities. The present study has been aimed to document the Traditional knowledge-based agricultural practices in Tribal dominated District Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh. More than thirty agricultural practices have been documented during our study which has revealed the potential of this area which can be a model for natural, organic, sustainable farming, paving the way toward resilient agricultural systems

Bio-Efficacy of Aureofungin-sol in Control of Downy and Powdery Mildews in Grape

Bio-efficacy of Aureofungin-sol, an antifungal antibiotic, for control of downy mildew and powdery mildew of grape was evaluated during October 2008 - April 2009 fruiting season in vineyards at three locations in Maharashtra. Four to nine sprays of Aureofungin-sol, @ 0.108, 0.163 and 0.217 g/l, starting from 12-16 days to 46-75 days after fruit pruning gave good control of downy mildew on leaves and bunches, and increased harvestable yield over the Control. Similarly, four sprays of Aureofungin-sol @ 0.108 g/l at 11 to 20 days' interval at 65 days after pruning provided complete control of powdery mildew on leaves and bunches. No residue of Aureofungin-sol was found in harvest samples above the limit of detection (0.1 mg/kg)

The ROLE OF HERBAL ANTIFUNGAL AGENTS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF FUNGAL DISEASES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Nowadays, fungal infection of skin is one of the most common dermatological problems worldwide. It has been investigated that 40 million people suffer from fungal infections. Superficial and subcutaneous fungal infections affect the skin, keratinous tissues, and mucous membranes. The dermatophytic infections, superficial candidiasis of the mouth, skin, or genital tract and infections due to Malassezia, such as pityriasis versicolor and Malassezia folliculitis are the main afflicting conditions. Systemic fungal infections may be caused by either an opportunistic organism that infects an at-risk host or may be associated with a more invasive organism or may be endemic to a specific geographical area. The most frequently encountered pathogens are Candida albicans and Aspergillus spp. but other fungi such as non-albicans Candida spp. are increasingly important in causing systemic fungal infections. There are numerous antifungal agents used clinically to treat fungal infections, i.e., azoles, allylamines, echinocandins, griseofulvin, and flucytosine. The course to modern treatment has not been without its problems and complications, particularly the drug resistances. Phytochemistry of various plant species has indicated that the phytochemicals could be a better source of medicine as compared to synthetically produced drugs. Natural medicines from a plant origin are still used as therapeutic agents, especially for treating bacterial, fungal, viral, protozoal, helminthic infections, etc. This review focuses on the use of plant constituents to prevent fungal infections caused by various pathogens. Hence, it will be proved beneficial for the drug industries

Antiretroviral treatment in resource-poor settings: A view from India

Context : The introduction of highly effective generic antiretroviral drugs at reduced cost has transformed the face of HIV/AIDS epidemic in developing countries like India. However, there is an urgent emphasis on developing and implementing guidelines for antiretroviral treatment monitoring by laboratory methods utilizing the available technologies in resource-limited settings. Aim : We studied the efficacy of antiretroviral treatment, adherence to therapy and motivation of patients for regular treatment monitoring by CD4 counts. Settings and Design :A longitudinal cohort study on an established cohort of 166 HIV-1-infected Indian individuals. Materials and Methods: Study subjects were followed up for the period from January 2002 to November 2006. Their clinical status and treatment regimen were recorded, and CD4 counts were performed at each visit. Statistical Analysis : Repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compute changes in median CD4 counts at each visit in the different treatment groups. Results : We observed a growing awareness and motivation for regular HIV disease monitoring among patients, accompanied by a trend of increasing median CD4 counts at all subsequent follow-up visits after initiation of antiretroviral treatment. Conclusions :The study gives an insight into the institutional efforts for the establishment of cohorts for longitudinal studies, which will help in designing effective treatment guidelines, thus providing impetus to the free public sector antiretroviral therapy program in India. Such formative research aims to fill the lacunae in the limited available data for the formulation of treatment-monitoring guidelines in resource-poor settings of developing countries like India

The Evolving Dynamics of Global Economic Power in the Post-crisis World: Revelations from a New Index of Government Economic Power

This paper develops an index for measuring the economic power of governments viewed as entities in themselves. The basic idea is to encapsulate the economic representative power of a nation’s government in the international arena in as simple and parsimonious a manner as possible. For this a set of standard data series drawn from internationally accepted data sources is used. The index is composed of four variables: government revenues, foreign currency reserves, export of goods and services, and human capital. These variables broadly reflect aspects that contribute to a government’s economic clout, voice and negotiating leverage by capturing elements like its ability to raise resources, its creditworthiness and credibility in international financial markets, its influence on global economic activity and its potential in terms of human resources. The index values are tracked over 10 years (2000-2009) covering 100 economies. [4/2011]. URL:[http://finmin.nic.in/WorkingPaper/Index%20of%20Government%20Economic%20Power.pdf].Economic Power, Government, comparative index, cross-country, economic power, foreign currency reserves, global economic crisis, government, human capital, revenue, trade, Indian, South Africa, among the African nations, Tanzania, Angola, Nigeria, Brazil, transition economies, Soviet Union