An approach to hygiene education among rural Indian school going children

Objectives: To find out the prevalence of intestinal parasites and its epidemiological correlates among rural Indian school going (6-14 years) children and to study the effect of focused, need based child to child hygiene education on personal hygiene of school children. Materials and Methods: In September 2007, the present participatory action research was undertaken at a feasibly selected village Dhotra (Kasar) in Wardha district of central India. A triangulated research design of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (transect walk & pile sorting) methods was used for the needs assessment before initiating formal hygiene education. Out of enlisted 172 children, data of 118 children with complete information was used for final analysis. The quantitative and qualitative data was entered and analyzed using the Epi Info 6.04 software and Anthropac 4.98.1/X software package respectively. School based participatory life skills based child to child hygiene education was undertaken for message dissemination and behavior change. The effect of this hygiene education on identified key behaviors was assessed after one month Results: Out of the 118 (50 male and 68 female) subjects examined 21 (17.8%, 95%CI, 11.4 – 25.9%) had intestinal parasite infection. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was significantly high among children having dirty untrimmed nails (47.4%, 95%CI, 30.9 – 64.1%) followed by those having poor hand washing practices (37.2%, 95%CI, 22.9 – 53.2%). One month after hygiene education, the proportion of children having practice of hand washing with soap after defecation significantly improved from 63.6 % to 78%. The proportion of clean and cut nails also improved from 67.8% to 80 % (p<0.05). Conclusions: The need based, focused, life skills based child to child hygiene education was effective for behavior change. An integrated approach of drug treatment and focused participatory hygiene education is required to control parasite load among rural Indian school going children

A Safety Device for Women?s Security Using GSM/GPS

This project describes about a one touch alarm system for women?s safety using GSM. In the light of recent outrage in Delhi which shook the nation and woke us to the safety issues for women, people are finding up in different ways to defend. Here we introduce a device which ensures the protection of women. This helps to identify protect and call on resources to help the one out of dangerous situations. Anytime you senses danger, all you had to do, is hold on the button of the device. The device consists of a AT89S52 microcontroller, GSM module, GPS modules. The system resembles a normal device which when activated, tracks the place of the women using GPS (Global Positioning System) and Force sensor and sends emergency messages using GSM (Global System for Mobile communication), to wireless SOS key contacts and the police control room. The main advantage of this system is that the user does not require a Smartphone unlike other applications that have been developed earlier. The use of sophisticated components ensures accuracy and makes it reliable. The system provides with all the features which will leave no stone unturned to help the dupe in any kind of emergency situations

Knowledge of Cancer cervix and its causative agents among HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected adolescent women in rural Medical College in Maharashtra, India

Background: The aim of this study is to examine the knowledge of human papilloma virus (HPV) and cervical cancer among HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected female adolescents attending Antenatal OPD in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Government Medical College, Miraj, Maharashtra, India.Methods: Subjects were recruited randomly from OPD attending patients.  A total of 30 subjects, 15 HIV-infected and 15 HIV-uninfected were selected via randomization and completed a measure of HPV knowledge, based on a previously validated instrument. The study took place in December 2017.Results: The overall mean score on the measure for all subjects was 43.3% (S.D. 10.9). There was no significant difference in HPV knowledge between the HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected groups. Based on results from a previous large-scale study using the same validated measure, this sample scored significantly worse on general HPV knowledge than samples from the other studies.Conclusions: Given the limited knowledge of HPV in this sample, there is greater need for education about the prevention of cervical cancer, specifically among high-risk adolescent women

An approach to hygiene education among rural Indian school going children

Objectives: To find out the prevalence of intestinal parasites and its epidemiological correlates among rural Indian school going (6-14 years) children and to study the effect of focused, need based child to child hygiene education on personal hygiene of school children. Materials and Methods: In September 2007, the present participatory action research was undertaken at a feasibly selected village Dhotra (Kasar) in Wardha district of central India. A triangulated research design of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (transect walk & pile sorting) methods was used for the needs assessment before initiating formal hygiene education. Out of enlisted 172 children, data of 118 children with complete information was used for final analysis. The quantitative and qualitative data was entered and analyzed using the Epi Info 6.04 software and Anthropac 4.98.1/X software package respectively. School based participatory life skills based child to child hygiene education was undertaken for message dissemination and behavior change. The effect of this hygiene education on identified key behaviors was assessed after one month Results: Out of the 118 (50 male and 68 female) subjects examined 21 (17.8%, 95%CI, 11.4 – 25.9%) had intestinal parasite infection. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was significantly high among children having dirty untrimmed nails (47.4%, 95%CI, 30.9 – 64.1%) followed by those having poor hand washing practices (37.2%, 95%CI, 22.9 – 53.2%). One month after hygiene education, the proportion of children having practice of hand washing with soap after defecation significantly improved from 63.6 % to 78%. The proportion of clean and cut nails also improved from 67.8% to 80 % (p<0.05). Conclusions: The need based, focused, life skills based child to child hygiene education was effective for behavior change. An integrated approach of drug treatment and focused participatory hygiene education is required to control parasite load among rural Indian school going children

Influence of Irrigation Regimes, Crop Spacing and Fertilization Methods on Growth and Yield of Okra in Coastal Region of Maharashtra

Water and nutrients are two important inputs for growing crops. High cost and increasing scarcity call for judicious use of these inputs to reduce losses. In this context, a field experiment was conducted during summer seasons of 2014-15 to 2016-17 in tropical semi-humid climate of coastal region of Maharashtra to evaluate the response of okra (Abemoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) to three irrigation regimes (100 % ETcrop, 80 % ETcrop, and 60% ETcrop) with drip irrigation in conjunction with three crop spacing (1200- 450x 450 mm, 1200-450x 300 mm, 1200-450x 150 mm) to suit the lateral spacing of 1.2m, and three fertilization methods (ring method, briquette application and fertigation). Results were compared with the conventional method of irrigation and fertilizer application (control). Total water demand of okra was 326.7mm, with maximum one-day crop evapotranspiration of 4.0 mm.day-1. Treatment combination with 80 % ETcrop drip irrigation, 1200-450x150 mm crop spacing, and drip fertigation increased the pod yield by 102.6 % with water saving of 60.9 % over control. Water application of 280.3 mm was optimum to achieve maximum crop yield (16.97 t.ha-1) in Konkan region. Water use-efficiency increased from 11.24 kg.ha-1.mm-1 to 60.32 kg.ha-1.mm-1 with this water application. The treatment resulted in economic water productivity of 242 `.m-3, which was about five times higher over the control treatment

A Comparative Analysis Study of Partial Replacement of Rubber Tyre pieces and Broken Bricks to the Aggregate

Concrete is one of the most popular building material, the construction industry is always increase its use and applications that’s why it is necessary to find alternative material to reduce the cost of concrete materials. On the other hand, the natural coarse aggregate are extracted from quarries and the result this quarries will be soon depleted in few decades if the rate of their uses continuous at this speed. As a result there was a need of permanent solution of this problem. The disposal of tire elastic or broken blocks for the creation of cement has been thought as an elective transfer of such waste to secure the earth. In this research paper tyre rubber and broken bricks were used as a coarse aggregate with 30% replacement of conventional aggregate. The compressive strength of concrete is observed at 7, 14 and 28 days and comparative analysis between waste tyre rubber and waste broken brick were analyzed. After 28 days comparison which waste material gives high strength is to preferred as best replacement of waste material with the aggregate