Nutritional status of pregnant women reporting at Rural Health Training Centre

Background: United Nations had passed MDGs followed by SDGs, half of which are based on women’s health. Despite best efforts, malnutrition remains a major problem that affects our country. This is a significant risk factor for maternal and foetal mortality. This study was conducted to identify current status of maternal wellbeing in villages under an RHTC to get baseline for further interventional studies in the villages.Methods: A descriptive study was done on the rural pregnant patients attending RHTC of LNMC and JKH situated at outskirts of Bhopal was done. All pregnant women attending RHTC from January 2016 to June 2017 were studied for nutrition indicators. Their weight and height were recorded and haemoglobin was measured by Sahli’s Haemoglobinometer and the data was compared. WMA Declaration of Helsinki was followed during this study.Results: Two hundred participants in this study were between age ranges 17 to 35 years with gravidity level of the participants ranging 1 to 5. Their Body Mass Index (BMI) ranging 14 to 30. One fourth participants were having BMI of 18.5 or less and four fifth had anaemia.Conclusions: Majority of pregnant women reporting for prenatal checkup at RHTC are malnourished and anaemic. It is recommended to study government scheme at micro level if it is serving as cash incentive for frequent and multiple pregnancy to potentially catapult the desired effect to worsen the situation of maternal health on one side and population control on the other. Health education for the rural public is recommended

Auditor Compensation Pattern Of S&P 500 Corporations Before And After The Passage Of Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The years 2001-02 were marked with an outburst of huge corporate financial failures that eroded billions of dollars from the stockholders’ equity and shook the confidence of the investor community. One of the issues that rose to the surface was the payment of huge nonaudit service fees by publicly traded companies to their auditors.  In response to the outcry against the alleged role of the auditors in the corporate scandals, Congress passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), which imposed a prohibition on the supply of certain nonaudit services by a CPA firm to its audit clients in order to reduce the suspected  revenue-dependence of auditors on their audit clients.  The study described in this paper examines the pattern of auditor compensation in the years 2001 and 2004 (i.e., pre- and post-SOX periods), for a sample of large public companies, to determine how the auditor compensation has changed during this three-year period and whether the new regulations have decreased such revenue-dependence of the auditor. The study also examines if each of the Big 4 CPA firms that dominate the audit market for large public companies have experienced a change in the pattern of their revenues drawn from different sources of auditor compensation. The results show that not only the composition of auditor compensation has changed after the passage of SOX but also the overall compensation paid by the sampled companies to their auditors has gone up noticeably in many cases, primarily due to a phenomenal rise in audit fees, which still may continue to threaten the auditor’s independence in the audit process.  Further, during this three-year period, each of the Big 4 CPA firms has shifted its emphasis on the different sources of its revenues from these large public companies

Varicella vaccination during early pregnancy: a cause of in utero miliary fetal tissue calcifications and hydrops?

BACKGROUND: It is the purpose of this article to describe a suspected association of inadvertent vaccination with varicella vaccine during early pregnancy with the subsequent development of in utero miliary fetal tissue calcifications and fetal hydrops detected by sonogram at 15 weeks of gestation. CASE: This is a case presentation of a pregnant patient who received varicella vaccination during the same menstrual cycle that she became pregnant, and is supplemented by a literary review. The fetus developed miliary fetal tissue calcifications and fetal hydrops detected by a targeted sonogram at 15 weeks gestation. CONCLUSION: Varicella vaccination during early pregnancy may be a cause of miliary fetal tissue calcifications and fetal hydrops

COTTON CROP CLASSIFICATION METHOD USING LEVENBERG-MARQUARDT NEURAL NETWORK AND ITS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS ON VEGETATION AND GREEN LEAF INDICES

numerous implications related with food, economic and environmental concerns are looking for cotton crop identification using timely information. However, the accuracy of cotton crop detection remains a challenging task, despite supervised classifier play significant roles. Moreover, the obtained results are not at expected remarkable level, when such direct application of classifiers is done on the images. Hence, vegetation indices are brought into the picture, but challenge persists on identifying suitable vegetation indices among numerous indices in the literature.  This work studies the performance of such six renowned vegetation indices like Simple Ratio (SR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Normalised IR, Wide-Dynamic Range Vegetation Index (WDRVI) and GreenNDVI (GNDVI). For this study, fuzzy c – means (FCM) clustering algorithm is unified with neural network, which is trained using Levenberg – Marquardt (LM) algorithm. The experimental results are investigated through which it is found that Green normalised difference Vegetation Index performs well than any other vegetation indices by accomplishing 91.63% accuracy on average

Photoelectrochemical investigation on the cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films prepared using spin coating technique

Photoelectrochemical cell technology is one of the simplest technologies, which converts light energy directly into electricity. The synthesis of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanocrystals (NCs) was performed by the facile hot injection method. The NCs were characterized by different techniques such as XRD, Raman, UV-Vis, FESEM, and XPS. The XRD pattern confirms the phase pure hexagonal CdS NCs. The band gap of NCs calculated from the UV-Visible spectrum is at 2.40 eV, indicating good absorption in the visible spectrum. XPS analysis confirmed the presence of individual elements in CdS NCs. The CdS thin-films having different thicknesses were prepared on FTO substrates using the spin coating technique. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) investigation of CdS NCs thin-films photoelectrodes was performed by varying its thickness. The increase in the thickness of thin-films increased photocurrent density

Global estimates on the number of people blind or visually impaired by cataract: a meta-analysis from 2000 to 2020

Background: To estimate global and regional trends from 2000 to 2020 of the number of persons visually impaired by cataract and their proportion of the total number of vision-impaired individuals. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published population studies and gray literature from 2000 to 2020 was carried out to estimate global and regional trends. We developed prevalence estimates based on modeled distance visual impairment and blindness due to cataract, producing location-, year-, age-, and sex-specific estimates of moderate to severe vision impairment (MSVI presenting visual acuity &lt;6/18, ≥3/60) and blindness (presenting visual acuity &lt;3/60). Estimates are age-standardized using the GBD standard population. Results: In 2020, among overall (all ages) 43.3 million blind and 295 million with MSVI, 17.0 million (39.6%) people were blind and 83.5 million (28.3%) had MSVI due to cataract blind 60% female, MSVI 59% female. From 1990 to 2020, the count of persons blind (MSVI) due to cataract increased by 29.7%(93.1%) whereas the age-standardized global prevalence of cataract-related blindness improved by −27.5% and MSVI increased by 7.2%. The contribution of cataract to the age-standardized prevalence of blindness exceeded the global figure only in South Asia (62.9%) and Southeast Asia and Oceania (47.9%). Conclusions: The number of people blind and with MSVI due to cataract has risen over the past 30 years, despite a decrease in the age-standardized prevalence of cataract. This indicates that cataract treatment programs have been beneficial, but population growth and aging have outpaced their impact. Growing numbers of cataract blind indicate that more, better-directed, resources are needed to increase global capacity for cataract surgery.</p

Global age-sex-specific mortality, life expectancy, and population estimates in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1950–2021, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Estimates of demographic metrics are crucial to assess levels and trends of population health outcomes. The profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on populations worldwide has underscored the need for timely estimates to understand this unprecedented event within the context of long-term population health trends. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 provides new demographic estimates for 204 countries and territories and 811 additional subnational locations from 1950 to 2021, with a particular emphasis on changes in mortality and life expectancy that occurred during the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods: 22 223 data sources from vital registration, sample registration, surveys, censuses, and other sources were used to estimate mortality, with a subset of these sources used exclusively to estimate excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2026 data sources were used for population estimation. Additional sources were used to estimate migration; the effects of the HIV epidemic; and demographic discontinuities due to conflicts, famines, natural disasters, and pandemics, which are used as inputs for estimating mortality and population. Spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression (ST-GPR) was used to generate under-5 mortality rates, which synthesised 30 763 location-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 1365 surveys and censuses, and 80 other sources. ST-GPR was also used to estimate adult mortality (between ages 15 and 59 years) based on information from 31 642 location-years of vital registration and sample registration data, 355 surveys and censuses, and 24 other sources. Estimates of child and adult mortality rates were then used to generate life tables with a relational model life table system. For countries with large HIV epidemics, life tables were adjusted using independent estimates of HIV-specific mortality generated via an epidemiological analysis of HIV prevalence surveys, antenatal clinic serosurveillance, and other data sources. Excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 was determined by subtracting observed all-cause mortality (adjusted for late registration and mortality anomalies) from the mortality expected in the absence of the pandemic. Expected mortality was calculated based on historical trends using an ensemble of models. In location-years where all-cause mortality data were unavailable, we estimated excess mortality rates using a regression model with covariates pertaining to the pandemic. Population size was computed using a Bayesian hierarchical cohort component model. Life expectancy was calculated using age-specific mortality rates and standard demographic methods. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were calculated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered values from a 1000-draw posterior distribution. Findings: Global all-cause mortality followed two distinct patterns over the study period: age-standardised mortality rates declined between 1950 and 2019 (a 62·8% [95% UI 60·5–65·1] decline), and increased during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2020–21; 5·1% [0·9–9·6] increase). In contrast with the overall reverse in mortality trends during the pandemic period, child mortality continued to decline, with 4·66 million (3·98–5·50) global deaths in children younger than 5 years in 2021 compared with 5·21 million (4·50–6·01) in 2019. An estimated 131 million (126–137) people died globally from all causes in 2020 and 2021 combined, of which 15·9 million (14·7–17·2) were due to the COVID-19 pandemic (measured by excess mortality, which includes deaths directly due to SARS-CoV-2 infection and those indirectly due to other social, economic, or behavioural changes associated with the pandemic). Excess mortality rates exceeded 150 deaths per 100 000 population during at least one year of the pandemic in 80 countries and territories, whereas 20 nations had a negative excess mortality rate in 2020 or 2021, indicating that all-cause mortality in these countries was lower during the pandemic than expected based on historical trends. Between 1950 and 2021, global life expectancy at birth increased by 22·7 years (20·8–24·8), from 49·0 years (46·7–51·3) to 71·7 years (70·9–72·5). Global life expectancy at birth declined by 1·6 years (1·0–2·2) between 2019 and 2021, reversing historical trends. An increase in life expectancy was only observed in 32 (15·7%) of 204 countries and territories between 2019 and 2021. The global population reached 7·89 billion (7·67–8·13) people in 2021, by which time 56 of 204 countries and territories had peaked and subsequently populations have declined. The largest proportion of population growth between 2020 and 2021 was in sub-Saharan Africa (39·5% [28·4–52·7]) and south Asia (26·3% [9·0–44·7]). From 2000 to 2021, the ratio of the population aged 65 years and older to the population aged younger than 15 years increased in 188 (92·2%) of 204 nations. Interpretation: Global adult mortality rates markedly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, reversing past decreasing trends, while child mortality rates continued to decline, albeit more slowly than in earlier years. Although COVID-19 had a substantial impact on many demographic indicators during the first 2 years of the pandemic, overall global health progress over the 72 years evaluated has been profound, with considerable improvements in mortality and life expectancy. Additionally, we observed a deceleration of global population growth since 2017, despite steady or increasing growth in lower-income countries, combined with a continued global shift of population age structures towards older ages. These demographic changes will likely present future challenges to health systems, economies, and societies. The comprehensive demographic estimates reported here will enable researchers, policy makers, health practitioners, and other key stakeholders to better understand and address the profound changes that have occurred in the global health landscape following the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, and longer-term trends beyond the pandemic

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles (MISEV2023): From basic to advanced approaches

Extracellular vesicles (EVs), through their complex cargo, can reflect the state of their cell of origin and change the functions and phenotypes of other cells. These features indicate strong biomarker and therapeutic potential and have generated broad interest, as evidenced by the steady year-on-year increase in the numbers of scientific publications about EVs. Important advances have been made in EV metrology and in understanding and applying EV biology. However, hurdles remain to realising the potential of EVs in domains ranging from basic biology to clinical applications due to challenges in EV nomenclature, separation from non-vesicular extracellular particles, characterisation and functional studies. To address the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) updates its 'Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles', which was first published in 2014 and then in 2018 as MISEV2014 and MISEV2018, respectively. The goal of the current document, MISEV2023, is to provide researchers with an updated snapshot of available approaches and their advantages and limitations for production, separation and characterisation of EVs from multiple sources, including cell culture, body fluids and solid tissues. In addition to presenting the latest state of the art in basic principles of EV research, this document also covers advanced techniques and approaches that are currently expanding the boundaries of the field. MISEV2023 also includes new sections on EV release and uptake and a brief discussion of in vivo approaches to study EVs. Compiling feedback from ISEV expert task forces and more than 1000 researchers, this document conveys the current state of EV research to facilitate robust scientific discoveries and move the field forward even more rapidly