A study to evaluate the knowledge of postnatal care among accredited social health activist workers in North Indian rural area

Background: ASHA (accredited social health activist) are the grass root level workers. Hence it is essential to study if they have adequate knowledge for delivering maternal health care services to community. The aim was to evaluate the knowledge of postnatal care among ASHA workers in North Indian rural area.Methods: This study was conducted at Basohli block of Kathua district from December 2019 to December 2020. Information was collected from ASHAs by interview technique.Results: 83.70% of ASHAs believed that colostrum should be given to newborn. 88.04% agreed for exclusive breast feeding for 6 months. 61.96% were in favor of more than 3 postnatal visits within 42 days of delivery. Many of them were aware of dangerous sign of postnatal mother and newborn. They were ignorant of postnatal exercises. All the ASHA were aware of purpose of immunization but only 21 knew the immunization schedule completely. All were aware of most of the available family planning methods that can be used by postnatal women.Conclusions: It is evident from the present study that ASHA workers have good knowledge of maximum aspects of postnatal care. Further training of the ASHA should be skill based and efforts should be made to remove the obstacles they are facing

A prospective study on association of primary infertility and fibroid uterus

Background: Implication of fibroid uterus on infertility is still debateable. Co-existence of infertility and fibroid uterus has been observed many times in clinical practice. This study is conducted to ascertain the frequency of primary infertility in women suffering from fibroid.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted at AL Qassmi Women's and Children's Hospital, Sharjah - UAE over a period of six months from January 2018 to June 2018. Total 100 patients were participated in the study. All data were collected and analysed using SPPS ver 20 software.Results: During the study period, a total of one hundred women presented with fibroid uterus were observed. All the cases were within the reproductive age group ranging from 20-43 years of age. 40% for cases were between 20-27 years, 49% cases were between 28-35 years and 11% belonged to 36-43 years of age. Considering the symptoms, infertility was 14%. According to the number of fibroids, in 22% of cases, there were multiple fibroids. The single uterine fibroid was seen in 78% of cases.Conclusions: Fibroid is relatively common in patients of reproductive age and was associated with infertility in 14% of cases

A study on presentation and management of ectopic pregnancy at tertiary care hospital

Background: Ectopic pregnancy and its consequences are the most severe form of obstetric emergency during first trimester of pregnancy. It is a kind of life threatening emergency leading to significant maternal morbidity and even mortality.Methods: A prospective study was conducted at a tertiary care teaching hospital of Northern India from 01 Jan 2020 to 31 Mar 2020. All cases of ectopic pregnancy which were admitted and managed during this study period were included in the study. All collected data were analysed with Epitable 6.04 version and SPSS version 20 software.Results: During the study period total 32 cases of ectopic pregnancy were studied. Classical symptoms of amenorrhoea, pain abdomen and bleeding per vaginum were observed in 62.50% cases whereas 93.75% cases were associated with pain abdomen only and 71.88% cases had the symptoms of bleeding per vaginum only. All cases were managed surgically. The incidence of ectopic pregnancy was one in 200 delivered pregnancy. Most case were multiparas and common in 27 -32 yr age group (53.13%). Tubal ectopic pregnancy was common in right side (63%).   Approximately 81% cases presented with haemoperitoneum and 63% cases required blood transfusion.Conclusions: Ectopic pregnancy mostly presents as an obstetrics emergency in our hospital especially with rupture ectopic pregnancy with haemoperitoneum. Early diagnosis and intervention suited best for the situation is mainstay for favourable and successful outcome

The Functional Self : The Minimal Self-Concept Is Protected Against Negative Content

Current research describes a particular component of the self-concept that influences a wide variety of cognitive processes while it depicts a rather basic component of the self-concept. However, this minimal self seems to be anything but simple; in fact, it seems to be highly functional. Based on previous findings on newly formed self-associations, we put the postulated functionality of this minimal self to another test by retesting its protection mechanisms against negative content. In a pilot experiment, we did not find an overall reduction of negative selfassignments against neutral self-assignments. However, the results indicated an initial difference (as hypothesized) between negative and neutral self-assignments, which decreases over the course of the experiment. We put this interactive effect of valence and block to test in our main experiment, which replicated the data pattern of the pilot experiment. In sum, the results indicate a mandatory integration of stimuli into the self-concept and also a reduction of the integration due to negative valence, thereby supporting a robust protection mechanism

Perturbation of the right prefrontal cortex disrupts interference control

Resolving cognitive interference is central for successful everyday cognition and behavior. The Stroop task is a classical measure of cognitive interference. In this task, participants have to resolve interference on a trial-by-trial basis and performance is also influenced by the trial history, as reflected in sequence effects. Previous neuroimaging studies have associated the left and right prefrontal cortex with successful performance in the Stroop task. Yet, the causal relevance of both regions for interference processing remains largely unclear. We probed the functional relevance of the left and right prefrontal cortex for interference control. In three sessions, 25 healthy participants received online repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and sham stimulation over the vertex. During each session, participants completed a verbal-response Stroop task. Relative to sham rTMS and rTMS over the left prefrontal cortex, rTMS over the right prefrontal cortex selectively disrupted the Stroop sequence effect (i.e., the congruency sequence effect; CSE). This effect was specific to sequential modulations of interference since rTMS did not affect the Stroop performance in the ongoing trial. Our results demonstrate the functional relevance of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for the processing of interference control. This finding points towards process-specific lateralization within the prefrontal cortex. The observed process- and site-specific TMS effect provides new insights into the neurophysiological underpinnings of Stroop task performance and more general, the role of the prefrontal cortex in the processing of interference control

Influence of Process Parameters on the Aerosol Deposition (AD) of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Particles

Aerosol deposition (AD) is a novel deposition process for the fabrication of dense and rather thick oxide films at room temperature. The bonding of the deposited ceramic particles is based on a shock-loading consolidation, resulting from the impact of the ceramic particles on the substrate. However, the deposition mechanism is not fully understood. In addition, many technical challenges have been observed for achieving a successful deposition of the oxides with higher efficiency. In this work, the influence of different processing parameters on the properties of the deposited layer is studied. Proof of concept was done using 8 mol.% yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) powder as starting material. The window of deposition with respect to carrier gas flows for successful deposition was identified. The influence of this carrier gas flow, the substrate materials and the carrier gas species on the coating thickness, interface quality and coating microstructure was systematically investigated. The derived mechanical characteristics revealed an unexpected behavior related to a gradient microstructure. This study supports understanding of the mechanism of room-temperature impact consolidation and its effect on the mechanical properties of the deposited layer