Flexible strain sensors

In one embodiment, a flexible strain sensor includes a flexible substrate having a top surface and a layer of piezoresistive amorphous carbon formed on the top surface of the substrate.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Prevalence of premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrhea among medical students and its impact on their college absenteeism

Background: Dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome are two most common gynaecological problem leading to college absenteeism seen among female medical students. Aim of the study was to evaluate the factors associated and prevalence of dysmenorrhoea and PMS and its effects on the quality of life, particularly absenteeism from college in female medical students. The health care profession has an obligation to provide and to promote education on menstruation and related subjects.Methods: This is a prospective study, conducted on 100 MBBS students studying in a medical college at Mangalore. All participants were given a preformed questionnaire to complete. Dysmenorrhea was assessed based on WaLiDD scoring system. Diagnosis of PMS in the present study was made according to diagnosis criteria proposed by American College of obstetrician and gynecology. The severity of their condition was assessed based on their absenteeism from college/classes.Results: The average age of the participants was 21 year±1 year. The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 45% and that of the pre-menstrual syndrome was 68%. Pre-menstrual syndrome (p = 0.05) is significantly associated with overweight, obesity and physical inactivity but not the same for dysmenorrhea. 73% and 60% of students consumed junk food suffered from PMS and dysmenorrhea respectively, 40% of students with dysmenorrhea reported limitation of daily activities and significantly associated with college absenteeism (p = 0.005). The most frequent somatic symptom of PMS in this study was breast tenderness (41%) and affective symptom was irritability (35%).Conclusions: Dysmenorrhea and PMS is highly prevalent among female medical students; it is related to college/class absenteeism. Unhealthy and sedentary lifestyle could be the attributing factors which has to be addressed by health education in order to improve the quality of life and academic performance by the medical students

Multi-functional electrospun nanofibers from polymer blends for scaffold tissue engineering

Electrospinning and polymer blending have been the focus of research and the industry for their versatility, scalability, and potential applications across many different fields. In tissue engineering, nanofiber scaffolds composed of natural fibers, synthetic fibers, or a mixture of both have been reported. This review reports recent advances in polymer blended scaffolds for tissue engineering and the fabrication of functional scaffolds by electrospinning. A brief theory of electrospinning and the general setup as well as modifications used are presented. Polymer blends, including blends with natural polymers, synthetic polymers, mixture of natural and synthetic polymers, and nanofiller systems, are discussed in detail and reviewed

Interacción público-privada en políticas sociales de infancia: lecciones para el trabajo social crítico de Chile y Estados Unidos

This article discusses the public-private partnership that exists in Chile and in the United States to collaborate on issues of child welfare. By comparing both countries, we look at ideologies and economic issues that have historically shaped the contemporary perspective of public-private partnerships in child welfare. Additionally, we probe the role of social work in this area to see its current position within the public and private sectors in child welfare provision. Some conclusions are that neoliberalism and a residual worldview about childhood have shaped this public-private partnership. Also, social work has historically played a relevant role in advocacy and development of child policies and in both countries, private sector primarily implements child welfare policies and public sector funds them. Some of the lessons for critical social work include the importance of promoting a change in the way we address social phenomena in child welfare, and demanding an effective installation of the human rights approach to guide public-private partnerships on child welfare in both countries.Este trabajo analiza la intersección público-privada que existe en Chile y en Estados Unidos para colaborar en las políticas de infancia. Al comparar ambos países, observamos ideologías y elementos económicos que históricamente han moldeado la perspectiva que orienta la intersección público-privada en torno al bienestar infantil. A su vez, revisamos el rol que ha tenido el trabajo social en este ámbito. Algunas conclusiones que emanan del trabajo son que el neoliberalismo y una visión del mundo residual sobre la infancia han dado forma a esta intersección público-privada. Además, el trabajo social ha desempeñado históricamente un papel relevante en la promoción y el desarrollo de las políticas de infancia y, en ambos países, el sector privado principalmente ha implementado las políticas de bienestar infantil y el sector público las ha financiado. Algunas lecciones que emanan desde la revisión para un trabajo social crítico incluyen la importancia de promover un cambio en la forma en que abordamos los fenómenos sociales vinculados con el bienestar infantil, así como también la necesidad de exigir una instalación efectiva del enfoque de derechos humanos en ambos países a la hora de orientar la intersección público-privada en materia de infancia.Departamento de Trabajo Social y Servicios Sociales; Facultad de Trabajo Socia

Comparative study of user friendliness of paperless partogram compared to WHO partogram in preventing prolonged labour

Background: Partogram is being used since 1954 when Friedman described it for monitoring progress of labour. The Paperless Partogram proposed by Dr. Debdas is a low-skill method for detection of abnormal labour. The objective of the present study was to know efficacy and user friendliness of paperless partogram in comparison with WHO partogram in monitoring and management of labourMethods: It’s a comparative study. Total of 100 patients were included in the study where half of the patients were monitored by paperless partogram and the other half by WHO modified partogram. The plotting of the WHO partographs started as soon the cervical dilatation was 4 cm along with regular painful uterine contractions. In the paperless partogram calculation will be two times, an ALERT ETD (estimated time of delivery) and an ACTION ETD. The outcome of labour will be recorded at the end of each partographs.Results: Paperless partogram was better than WHO partogram in terms of documentation, ease of use, learning, time factor, cost effectiveness and monitoring of labour, identification of abnormal labour.Conclusions: In present study paperless partogram was found to be preferred for monitoring of labour

Cervical effacement, as an independent parameter versus modified bishop score, for predicting the favorability of vaginal delivery in a primigravida at 40 weeks gestation and beyond

Background: Dr. Edward Bishop developed the original bishop score. He concluded that elective induction in multiparous women was successful with a score > 8. Calder introduced the modified bishop score in which he replaced cervical effacement with cervical length in cms. Score of 6-12 is favourable. In this study, studied the cervical effacement/ length as an independent predictor of vaginal delivery in a primigravida.Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted from May 2018 to January 2019. Total participants were divided into two groups on the basis of spontaneous labor and induced labor. Both the groups were assessed individually and collectively in terms of cervical effacement/length and modified bishop score. Study primary outcome was vaginal delivery. The results were reflected in terms of sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV. These values were compared for cervical effacement/ length as well as modified bishop score and p value calculated. Also, association between modified bishop score and cervical effacement/length was established.Results: Total number of participants included was n = 91. Those with modified bishop score > 6, 78.16% had vaginal delivery. This gave a sensitivity of 78.16%, specificity of 50%, PPV of 97.14%. Those with cervical effacement of >/=50% or cervical length of /= 50% had modified bishop score >/= 6, reflecting the association between them.Conclusions: Cervical effacement of >/= 50% or cervical length </= 2 cms yielded an equivalently high predictive ability similar to modified bishop score, for spontaneous as well as induced labor. Hence, cervical effacement can be taken as an independent parameter to assess the favorability of successful vaginal delivery in a primigravida

Self-assembly of 3D nanostructures in electrospun polycaprolactone-polyaniline fibers and their application as scaffolds for tissue engineering

The fabrication of synthetic scaffolds that mimic the microenvironment of cells is a crucial challenge in materials science. The honeycomb morphology is one such bio-mimicking structure that possesses unique physical properties and high packing efficiency in a 3-dimensional space. Here, we present a novel method for electrospinning polycaprolactone-polyaniline with continuous, self-assembled, uniform, interwoven nanofibers forming patterns without the use of templates or porogens. By using the approach presented here, unique architectures mimicking the natural mechanical anisotropy of extracellular matrix were created by varying the electric field. Adult human dermal fibroblasts (HDFa) cells were successfully cultured on the nanofiber scaffolds without any external growth factors or post-processing of the nanofibers and compared to a commercially available dermal template. Our data indicates that despite identical chemical composition, the physical properties impact cell attachment, alignment and penetration into the scaffold. The mechanical strength of the fibers also plays a role with a distinct preference to fibers with high stiffness and ultimate tensile strength. Thus, by tuning the electric field, fibers with different physical properties and patterns can be fabricated for different applications

Orange-Brown Precipitate: A Threat to the Success of Endodontic Treatment – An In Vitro Study

AIM: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of various intermediate irrigating solutions in the removal of orange-brown precipitate formed due to alternative use of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and chlorhexidine (CHX) root canal irrigants. METHODS: The root canals of 50 mandibular premolars were prepared using ProTaper Universal Rotary instruments (Dentsply Maillefer, Ballaigues, Switzerland) up to size F3. The roots were randomly divided into five experimental groups specified by the intermediate irrigant used; Group 1: No intermediate irrigant used (control), Group 2: Saline, Group 3: 7% maleic acid (MA), Group 4: 4% sodium thiosulfate, and Group 5: 70% isopropyl alcohol (n = 10). After final irrigation with CHX, the specimens were evaluated for the presence/absence of orange-brown precipitate under stereomicroscope. RESULTS: Mean precipitate for all experimental groups was calculated using ANOVA F test which showed orange-brown precipitate (parachloroanaline) in all groups except Group 4 and Group 5 which were highly significant (p &lt; 0.001) at all the levels of root canal. Intergroup pairwise comparison was done using Tukey’s post hoc test. CONCLUSION: About 7% MA is effective in minimizing the formation of orange-brown precipitate when used as intermediate irrigant between NaOCl and CHX. However, the precipitate was not observed with 4% sodium thiosulfate and 70% isopropyl alcohol

Maternal and fetal out come in meconium stained amniotic fluid in a tertiary centre

Background: This study was undertaken to determine the correlation of amniotic fluid stained with meconium (MSAF) with maternal and fetal outcome.Methods: This prospective observational study was carried out in the Department of obstetrics and gynecology, Yenepoya medical college, Mangalore over a period of 14 months between January 2013 to march 2014. A total of 1000 pregnant women who had completed more than 37weeks of gestation with singleton pregnancies & cephalic presentation were included in this study. MSAF on spontaneous or artificial rupture of membranes were monitored during labour with fetal heart rate abnormality, consistency of liquor, 1 minute and 5 minute Apgar score, LSCS, instrumental delivery, NICU admissions and neonatal complications as outcome variables.Results: Women were divided into two groups: 350 women with MSAF as cases, while 650 women with clear liquor were taken as controls. Among 350 cases with MSAF, 70 % were unbooked and 30 % were booked pts. About 75.7% of women were between 20-30 years of age-group. Primi gravidas constituted 51.4% in study group. Approximately 41.4% cases had gestational ages of 39 -39+6. Among MSAF 55.4% were thin stained & 44.5%were thickly stained. 45.7% showed fetal heart abnormalities on electronic monitoring & presence of fetal bradycardia was higher. Caesarean section rates were nearly triple in cases (45.7% vs 15.7%). Fetal out come in regard to Apgar score at birth, birth asphyxia, MAS, increased NICU admissions were more in cases. Incidence of Male to female was high (52.6% vs 47.3%).Conclusions: Presence of MSAF is worrisome for both the obstetrician and pediatricians view as it increases surgical intervention, birth asphyxia, MAS & NICU admissions