Comparison of near miss obstetric events and maternal deaths in a tertiary care teaching hospital from Eastern India

Background: Obstetrics near miss is an important indicator that reflects the quality of obstetrics care in a health facility. Timely audit of the obstetrics near miss data would help in reducing maternal mortality.Methods: A retrospective chart review of the maternal near miss (MNM) and death based on WHO 2009 criteria was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital from Eastern India over 12 months. Main outcome measures were severe acute maternal morbidity (MNM) and maternal deaths.Results: During the study period, there were 9204 deliveries, 116 near miss cases, and 69 maternal deaths. The MNM incidence ratio was 13.75/1000 live births, MNM to mortality ratio was 1.68:1, and mortality index was 37.3%. A total of 126 cases were referred, while 5 cases were booked at our hospital. Hypertensive disorders accounted for the highest number of near miss cases (40.5%), followed by sepsis (31%), haemorrhage (18%), and dystocia (10%). The mortality index was 36.58%, 33.33%, 19.23%, and 07.6% for hypertensive disorders, sepsis, haemorrhage, and dystocia, respectively.  Most common causes of maternal deaths were hypertensive disorders, followed by systemic infections, HELLP syndrome, embolism, haemorrhage, malaria, and ruptured uterus. On bivariate analysis, there was an increased risk of maternal death in those illiterate, incomplete antenatal check-up (<3), multipara, preterm pregnancy, and home delivery.Conclusions: Hemorrhage and hypertensive disorders are the leading causes of MNM events and mortality. Early identification, remedial measures, and timely treatment would help to decrease the burden of maternal near miss and mortality

Virulence of Bacillus cereus as natural facultative pathogen of Anopheles subpictus Grassi (Diptera: Culicidae) larvae in submerged rice-fields and shallow ponds

Out of 4407 Anopheles subpictus larvae collected from submerged rice-fields and shallow ponds, 1412 were found to be unhealthy and 2.8% of unhealthy larvae were naturally infected by Bacillus cereus. B. cereus formed circular, white and flat colonies. Bacteria were gram positive, ellipsoidal/oval spore forming aerobic rods. Although the isolate was positive for catalase, urease, gelatinase, lipase, nitrate reduction and H2S production, it was negative for indole production, Vogues-Proskauer test, oxidase test and acid/gas production from carbon sources. Through biochemical characterization and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis, the bacterial isolate was identified as Bacillus cereus. In the laboratory condition, B. cereus suspension resulted in 43.57% and 93.78% death of A. subpictus larvae within 3 and 6 h, respectively. The organisms were sensitive to recommended doses of kanamycin, gatifloxacin, gentamycin, levofloxacin, doxycyclin,  tetracyclin, streptomycin, rifampicin, vancomycin, ciprofloxacin, but found resistant to ampicillin.Key words: Bacillus cereus, fatty acid methyl ester analysis, scanning electron micrograph, biochemicalcharacterization, pathogen, Anopheles subpictus larva

Collecting data using eBPF tools for detecting the existence of Malicious Network Attacks Using Machine Learning, in a Micro-service Based Application with a Containerized Environment

Delivering large scale applications using microservices based architecture using containerization techniques and orchestration techniques like Kubernetes in cloud-native environments, have become the most popular software design architecture for various applications. However, Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent against software organizations. As a result, there is a high demand for new techniques that can detect Cyber intrusions against such applications. Things even get more difficult when the application is massive. The data collected by mainstream monitoring technologies based on sampling is insufficient to cover all anomalies. The kernel's lack of observability makes it difficult to monitor more detail in container environments like Kubernetes. Current solutions rely on tracing and application performance monitoring tools (APMs), that are language-specific and invasive to application code. In many cases, a more general network monitoring and diagnostic method is needed. This application proposes a no- invasive approach to introduce networking monitoring at the kernel level below the applications ixrunning under containers. This approach uses eBPF based non-intrusive collection of network data and feeds the data to the Machine learning model to analyze and detect the DDoS attack

Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Simulation for Studying the Trajectory of Dust Particle Approaching Solar Photovoltaic Panel

This research aims to investigate the impact of wind velocity on dust particle accumulation on solar panels, a significant factor influencing its efficiency and contribute to increased maintenance costs. The study focuses on analysing the motion of dust particles subjected to various forces, including gravitational force, buoyant force, drag force, wind force, and Van der Waals force. The analytical investigation involves studying particle motion under different wind speeds and directions. The Runge-Kutta method of order four is employed to solve the problem. Interestingly, at low wind speeds (1-2.6 m/s) and wind directions (0°-60°), particles tend to fall to the ground just before reaching the solar panel. However, at higher wind speeds (3.7-5.6 m/s) and similar wind directions, particles exhibit a tendency to fall onto the panel surface. This finding underscores the significance of wind conditions in determining the trajectory of dust particles and their potential impact on solar panel efficiency

Role of vaginal progesterone in reducing the rate of preterm labour in women with a sonographic short cervix

Background: Preterm labour is responsible for not only neonatal morbidity and mortality but also has long term consequences .Till now there is no effective method of prevention. Progesterone has shown promising result. But ideal candidate, ideal route and when to start the treatment are still in dilemma. The present study was undertaken to know the role of progesterone on pregnant women with sonographically short cervix.Methods: This prospective case control study was started on 100 pregnant women with sonographic short cervix (≤2.5 cm) and between 19 – 29 weeks of gestation. 60 women, some with history of midtrimester abortion or preterm labour and some without this history were treated as cases and were given vaginal progesterone pessary 200 mg once daily till rupture of membrane or onset of labour or up to 36 weeks of gestation whichever is earlier. 40 women without any history of midtrimester abortion or preterm labour were treated as control and followed up.Results: Among the cases 18.3%, delivered preterm and 81.7% were term deliveries. Respective proportions among control were 40% and 60% respectively. 26 among the cases and all women of control group did not have history of preterm labour and mid trimester abortion. In the case group 26.9% and in the control group 40% had preterm deliveries. Though the proportion of labour was lower among the cases it is not statistically significant (p = 0.276). There is mean prolongation of gestational age by 8.4± 1.29 weeks in case group in present pregnancy compared the previous one in cases with history of preterm labour and midtrimester abortion which was statistically significant .When neonatal complication are compared there is no significant difference between the two groups.Conclusions: Vaginal progesterone started from midtrimester in pregnant ladies with short cervix with previous history of midtrimester abortion or preterm labour is effective in reducing the rate of preterm birth

Study of Doppler indices of umbilical artery and middle cerebral artery in pregnancies at and beyond forty weeks of gestation

Background: The optimal management of pregnancies beyond date is still debated. Prolonged pregnancies carry risk to the fetus and routine induction increases the rate of primary cesarean section. Hence as there is evidence that placental reserve diminishes beyond term this study was conducted to know the effect of advanced gestation on Doppler indices and its correlation with perinatal outcome.Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 80 pregnant women who are at or beyond 40 weeks of gestation. Doppler indices of umbilical artery and middle cerebral artery were taken. Data were analyzed with obstetrics and perinatal outcome.Results: Umbilical artery mean RI increased with gestational age (p=0.003). There was no significant difference in PI and S/D ratio in different gestational age groups. Middle cerebral artery Doppler indices did not show any significant difference in different gestational age groups. In abnormal Doppler group, perinatal outcome was also not significantly different, but neonatal intensive care unit admission was increased, which was statistically significant (p=0.007).Conclusions: Vascular resistance in the umbilical artery and middle cerebral artery does not change abruptly when gestation exceeds 280 days. It also cannot be taken as the sole method of fetal surveillance when date is crossed

PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF CYTOCHROME OXIDASE SUBUNIT I (COI) GENE SEQUENCES OF MITOCHONDRIAL DNA OF PARNASSIUS SPP. (LEPIDOPTERA; PAPILIONIDAE; PARNASSIINAE)

Cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences of mitochondrial DNA of different species of the genus Parnassius downloaded from NCBI (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) were aligned and analyzed to determine the diversity in respect to the percentage of Adenine, Thymine, Guanine and Cytosine, AT content, G+C content, basic melting temperature, relative melting temperature. Mean values of AT content, GC content and Relative melting temperature were 71.7713, 28.2564 and 0.363666 respectively showing a linear regression between GC content and the mean value of Relative melting temperature

Bacterial biofilms: role of quorum sensing and quorum quenching

Bacterial biofilms provide an adjustable strategy to manage themselves in the existing conditions. Biofilms of pathogenic bacteria act as a reservoir for various device and non-device related diseases which are tough to cure. Exposure to a high dose of antibiotics is not an appropriate solution to this problem as high antibiotic concentrations lead to the generation of Multi-drug resistant strains as well as affect the human body. So, it is needed to bypass the use of antibiotics to prevent bacterial biofilms. In this context, Quorum Sensing (QS) may be a potential target since biofilm formation is regulated by QS. N-acyl homoserine lactones (N-AHL) act as predominant QS signal molecules in Gram-negative bacteria. Counteraction of the QS-regulated activities using quorum quenching may be an alternative way to combat biofilm formation in bacteria. Quorum sensing inhibitors (QSIs) and QQ enzymes play a significant role in this regard either by interference with the signal generation, perception, or by degradation, and chemical modification, respectively. Many quorum quenching enzymes have been reported from bacteria. Extremophilic bacteria have also been reported to produce potent quorum quenching enzymes which can effectively break down N-AHLs