Maternal Healthcare Services and the Health Workers among the Migrant Slum Dwellers of Bangalore City, Karnataka, India

The health workers play a variety of roles which include provision of outreach, information, referral, advocacy and other support to promote health and help people meet their healthcare. The poor migrants usually settle in unauthorized slums or settlements. The migrant health is found in a disadvantageous position due to poor access to healthcare services. The present paper examines the maternal healthcare services provided by the peripheral health workers among the interstate migrants living in slums of Bangalore city. After conducting a pilot survey, five slums (migrant camps/non-notified slums) were identified based on the criteria of 1) inter- state migration 2) year of migration <7 years 3) having more than 100 households. Mothers with a child below 2 years (n=100) were interviewed with a pretested questionnaire. Qualitative data were collected from the mothers, key informants and healthcare workers through in- depth interviews. The maternal healthcare services by the health workers are not able to reach the migrant population due to migrants’ location of staying and many women went back to their native place for child delivery. The migrants who moved for delivery to their native place (32.4%) accessed the services of the health workers better than the respondents who stayed in the Bangalore city (13.5%). Similar situation was found for the visit of the heath workers for post-natal care. Some institutional lacuna like lack of space, toilets, water and also the shortage of staff etc. were pointed out by the health workers, which are required. The study warrants the need to understand the realities and healthcare needs of the migrant population. A better mechanism should be developed to improve the services of peripheral health workers in delivering primary healthcare services like maternal health care

Scalar dark matter, Neutrino mass and Leptogenesis in a U(1)B−L\rm U(1)_{B-L} model

We investigate the phenomenology of singlet scalar dark matter in a simple $\rm U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge extension of standard model, made anomaly free with four exotic fermions. The enriched scalar sector and the new gauge boson $Z^\prime$, associated with $\rm U(1)$ gauge extension, connect the dark sector to the visible sector. We compute relic density, consistent with Planck limit and $Z^\prime$ mediated dark matter-nucleon cross section, compatible with PandaX bound. The mass of $Z^\prime$ and the corresponding gauge coupling are constrained from LEP-II and LHC dilepton searches. We also briefly scrutinize the tree level neutrino mass with dimension five operator. Furthermore, resonant leptogenesis phenomena is discussed with TeV scale exotic fermions to produce the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe. Further, we briefly explain the impact of flavor in leptogenesis and we also project the combined constraints on Yukawa, consistent with oscillation data and observed baryon asymmetry. Additionally, we restrict the new gauge parameters by using the existing data on branching ratios of rare $B(\tau)$ decay modes. We see that the constraints from dark sector are much more stringent from flavor sector.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, version to appear in Journal of Physics

Cops and robber on subclasses of P5P_5-free graphs

The game of cops and robber is a turn based vertex pursuit game played on a connected graph between a team of cops and a single robber. The cops and the robber move alternately along the edges of the graph. We say the team of cops win the game if a cop and the robber are at the same vertex of the graph. The minimum number of cops required to win in each component of a graph is called the cop number of the graph. Sivaraman [Discrete Math. 342(2019), pp. 2306-2307] conjectured that for every $t\geq 5$, the cop number of a connected $P_t$-free graph is at most $t-3$, where $P_t$ denotes a path on $t$~vertices. Turcotte [Discrete Math. 345 (2022), pp. 112660] showed that the cop number of any $2K_2$-free graph is at most $2$, which was earlier conjectured by Sivaraman and Testa. Note that if a connected graph is $2K_2$-free, then it is also $P_5$-free. Liu showed that the cop number of a connected ($P_t$, $H$)-free graph is at most $t-3$, where $H$ is a cycle of length at most $t$ or a claw. So the conjecture of Sivaraman is true for ($P_5$, $H$)-free graphs, where $H$ is a cycle of length at most $5$ or a claw. In this paper, we show that the cop number of a connected ($P_5,H$)-free graph is at most $2$, where $H\in \{C_4$, $C_5$, diamond, paw, $K_4$, $2K_1\cup K_2$, $K_3\cup K_1$, $P_3\cup P_1\}$

Sexual Risk Behaviour among Migrant Tribals Living in Urban Slums of an Eastern Indian City: Implications on the Spread of HIV

This paper reports the sexual risk behaviour among migrant tribal community living in an eastern Indian city. The age at marriage is very low in this community and 54% of women had first intercourse before the age of 15 years with the mean of 15.8 years and it is 19.5 years for men. Pre and extramarital relations, including multi-partnered sex is prevalent. Safe sexual practices are not reported and the risk perception is very low. High prevalence of behavioral risk factors leaves a potential risk for rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) both in slums as well as in remote tribal areas

Visual Outcomes in Acute Methyl Alcohol poisoning and its Biochemical Predictors: A Hospital-Based Study in Eastern India

Acute methyl alcohol toxicity can lead to severe ocular morbidity. In the present study, we aimed to observe the ocular outcomes in acute methyl alcohol poisoning and determine the biochemical predictors of the final visual outcome. This was a hospital- based descriptive study conducted on 19 consecutive patients of acute methanol poisoning presenting to the Ophthalmology department of a tertiary care multispecialty hospital in Eastern India. Thorough clinical history was obtained in each case.  A comprehensive ocular examination was done. Details of systemic treatment provided were obtained in all cases. Nineteen patients were included in the study. All patients were males. The average age of patients was 35.84 ± 9.25 years. All patients complained of bilateral blurring of vision. One patient had severe vision loss with visual acuity of hand movements in both eyes. . Colour vision was absent in 7 eyes (18.41%), and impaired in 5 eyes (13.15%). Disc edema was seen in 5 eyes (13.15%). High anion gap metabolic acidosis was seen in 13 (78.9%) cases. Serum bicarbonate level was < 22 mmol L-1 in 13 (68.42%) patients. Eleven (57.89%) patients underwent hemodialysis. The presence of metabolic acidosis, high anion gap, and high base deficit were associated with poor visual acuity and defective color vision both at the initial presentation and final follow-up. Metabolic acidosis, high anion gap, and base deficit at the time of presentation are associated with defective color vision, abnormal pupillary reaction, and poor vision both during initial and final visits. Prompt management of these metabolic abnormalities can decrease ocular morbidity and improve the final visual outcomes

Betelvine (Piper betle L.): A comprehensive insight into its ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and pharmacological, biomedical and therapeutic attributes

Piper betle L. (synonym: Piper betel Blanco), or betel vine, an economically and medicinally important cash crop, belongs to the family Piperaceae, often known as the green gold. The plant can be found all over the world and is cultivatedprimarily in South East Asian countries for its beautiful glossy heart-shaped leaves, which are chewed or consumed as betelquidand widely used in Chinese and Indian folk medicine, as carminative, stimulant,astringent, against parasitic worms, conjunctivitis, rheumatism, wound, etc., andis also used for religious purposes. Hydroxychavicol is the most important bioactive compound among the wide range of phytoconstituents found in essential oil and extracts. The pharmacological attributes of P. betle are antiproliferation, anticancer, neuropharmacological, analgesic, antioxidant, antiulcerogenic, hepatoprotective, antifertility, antibacterial, antifungal and many more. Immense attention has been paid to nanoformulations and their applications. The application of P. betle did not show cytotoxicity in preclinical experiments, suggesting that it could serve as a promising therapeutic candidate for different diseases. The present review comprehensively summarizes the botanical description, geographical distribution, economic value and cultivation, ethnobotanical uses, preclinical pharmacological properties with insights of toxicological, clinical efficacy, and safety of P. betle. The findings suggest that P. betle represents an orally active and safe natural agent that exhibits great therapeutic potential for managing various human medical conditions. However, further research is needed to elucidate its underlying molecular mechanisms of action, clinical aspects, structure–activity relationships, bioavailability and synergistic interactions with other drugs.This research was funded by projects APOGEO (Cooperation Program INTERREG-MAC 2014–2020, with European Funds for Regional Development-FEDER, ‘Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI) del Gobierno de Canarias’ (project ProID2020010134), and CajaCanarias (project 2019SP43).Peer reviewe

Marriage, Sex, and Hydrocele: An Ethnographic Study on the Effect of Filarial Hydrocele on Conjugal Life and Marriageability from Orissa, India

Lymphatic filariasis, the second leading cause of permanent and long-term disability, affects 120 million people globally. Hydrocele, an accumulation of fluid in the scrotum that causes it to swell, is one of the chronic manifestations of LF among men and there are about 27 million men with hydrocele worldwide. We conducted ethnographic interviews and discussions with patients, women whose husbands have hydrocele, and the general public in a rural community of eastern India. The study describes how hydrocele impacts patients' sexual and marital life. It reveals the most worrisome effect of hydrocele for patients and their wives due to the inability to have a satisfactory sexual life. Patients expressed their incapacity during sexual intercourse. A majority of hydrocele patients' wives reported that their married life became burdened and couples were not living happily. This study also highlights the impact on marriageability, and some women expressed that a hydrocele patient is the “last choice”. In some cases, the patients were persuaded by their wives to remove hydrocele by surgery (hydrocelectomy). Hence, access to hydrocelectomy has to be strengthened under the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis, which is operational in several endemic areas in the world. Also, this activity may be integrated with primary healthcare services and interventions of other neglected tropical diseases