Trends in causes of maternal mortality in a tertiary care centre in Kerala, India

Background: Kerala has the lowest maternal mortality ratio compared to other Indian states. But when compared to developed countries Kerala has still a long way to go. The present study aimed to analyse the causes of maternal deaths that occurred in the study setting for a period of seven years (2011-2017).Methods: Retrospective study which was conducted at SAT hospital, Govt. Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram. All maternal deaths that occurred in the study setting from January 2011 to December 2017 were found out from registers. The baseline socio demographic characteristics, gravidity, parity, cause of death were recorded using structured proforma and analyzed using SPSS software.Results: Total maternal deaths during the time period was 101. There were 66441 live births. Maternal mortality ratio for the seven-year period was 152. Majority were primigravidae (50.49%), of low socio-economic status (79.2%), rural population (81.1%) and referred from periphery after identifying complication (85.1%). Caessarean section was the commonest mode of delivery among them (43.56%). Regarding cause of death, indirect maternal deaths were more than direct deaths (50.49% versus 42.57%). Cardiac disorder was the leading indirect cause (12.87%), Post-partum hemorrhage (13.86%), Hypertensive disorders (8.91%) and Sepsis (7.9%) were the leading direct causes.Conclusions: Early referral protocols, increasing blood and blood component availability in the periphery should be reinforced. Regarding indirect causes medical boards should be constituted in tertiary care centres for prompt and efficient multidisciplinary care

DESIGN OF SUBSTRATE INTEGRATED WAVEGUIDE H- PLANE HORN ANTENNA ON A PTFE SUBSTRATE

Rectangular dielectric loaded substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) H-plane horn antenna, operating at 26 GHz has been proposed in this paper. For the simulations, a substrate of thickness 3.2mm and a dielectric material of Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (PTFE) has been used. The size of antenna was reduced and a dielectric slab was loaded in front of the horn. This resulted in the increase of gain and also narrow beamwidths in the E- plane and H- plane. A comparison between two horn antennas, one without dielectric loading and one with dielectric loading has been presented in this paper

Test of Transitivity in Quantum Field theory using Rindler spacetime

We consider a massless scalar field in Minkowski spacetime $\cal{M}$ in its vacuum state, and consider two Rindler wedges $R_1$ and $R_2$ in this space. $R_2$ is shifted to the right of $R_1$ by a distance $\Delta$. We therefore have $R_2\subset R_1 \subset \cal{M}$ with the symbol $\subset$ implying a quantum subsystem. We find the reduced state in $R_2$ using two independent ways: a) by evaluation of the reduced state from vacuum state in $\cal{M}$ which yields a thermal density matrix, b) by first evaluating the reduced state in $R_1$ from $\cal{M}$ yielding a thermal state in $R_1$, and subsequently evaluate the reduced state in $R_2$ in that order of sequence. In this article we attempt to address the question whether both these independent ways yield the same reduced state in $R_2$. To that end, we devise a method which involves cleaving the Rindler wedge $R_1$ into two domains such that they form a thermofield double. One of the domains aligns itself along the wedge $R_2$ while the other is a diamond shaped construction between the boundaries of $R_1$ and $R_2$. We conclude that both these independent methods yield two different answers, and discuss the possible implications of our result in the context of quantum states outside a non-extremal black hole formed by collapsing matter.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Land use change suppresses precipitation

Aerosols of natural and anthropogenic origin have important climate effects through interaction with clouds, which are among the main uncertainties in climate models due to the large variability of aerosol sizes, types and 3D-distributions [1]. Experimental investigations are typically restricted to high concentrations in industrial and urban aerosol plumes although in more remote areas already slight changes in the aerosol concentrations can have a large impact. This study reports on investigations of aerosols over a remote natural laboratory, along the ~1500 km long Vermin Proof Fence, also called “State Barrier Fence”, in Western Australia. This Fence, built in the first decade of the 20th century, separates an area of >100.000 square km of homogeneous terrain, converted to arable land (west), from the natural vegetation of inner Australia, conserved as a nature preserve (east). The Fence protects the agriculture from an invasion of animals but also protects the nature preserve from farming pressure and serves as a clear cut between the two types of landscape. Recent satellite images indicate that the Fence also works as a separation line between different meteorological regions. Clouds, for example, develop more often over regions with natural vegetation [2]. Early surveys of aerosols over Australia [3] found generally clean conditions with less than 1000 ultrafine (~ 20 nm) particles / cm3 throughout most of Australia. Local enhancements were occasionally observed in coastal areas, but, for the analysis of particle distributions they were considered to be unimportant. However, higher numbers of ultrafine particles were now also found downwind of tropical eucalyptus forests on the Australian east coast

Application of Metallic Strip Gratings for Enhancement of Electromagnetic Performance of A-sandwich Radome

Enhancement of the electromagnetic (EM) performance characteristics of A-sandwich radome wall over X-band using metallic strip gratings is presented in this work. Equivalent transmission line method in conjunction with equivalent circuit model (ECM) is used for modeling the A-sandwich radome panel with metallic strip gratings and the computation of radome performance parameters. Metallic strip grating embedded in the mid-plane of the core and those in the skin-core interface are the configurations considered in the present work. For a given thickness of metallic strip grating, its width and pitch are optimized at different angles of incidence such that the new radome wall configuration offers superior EM performance over the entire X-band as compared to the conventional A-sandwich wall. The EM analysis shows that the superior EM performance of A-sandwich with metallic strip gratings makes it suitable for the design of normal incidence and streamlined airborne radomes.Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(5), pp.508-514, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.245

Molecular aggregation structures into ternary system deca glycerol dioleate/ heptane/water

The phase diagram for the ternary system deca glycerol dioleate(DGD)/heptane/water was established at 25°C. In this phase diagram it was seen that the reverse micellar solution phase extends in its area until the water content reaches 35-45 wt%, at which a liquid crystalline phase begins to appear. On the basis of the experimental results of specific conductivity, viscosity, etc. for the samples containing a definite amount of DGD (0,1 M), and varying relative amounts of heptane and water, the mechanism of the transition of reverse micellar structures to liquid crystalline phase is discussed

Optimal Design of Multilayered Radar Absorbing Structures (RAS) using Swarm Intelligence based Algorithm

The steady progress in the fields of material science and processing technologies has made multi-layered radar absorbing structures (RAS) an attractive option w.r.t. stealth technologies. They possess the ability to reduce radar cross-section with minimum thickness and is therefore most preferred in airborne applications. As far as their electromagnetic performance is concerned, the sequence of material layers and thickness profile plays a pivotal role. Optimization of these two factors becomes complex in case of availability of large number of potential materials. Commonly used EM simulation software can be employed for the optimization of thickness profile. However, selection of suitable material layer sequence is out of their scope. In this context, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) based algorithm is presented for sequencing of material layers and optimization of thickness profile of multi-layered RAS configurations. The fitness function has been appropriately formulated to achieve maximum power absorption over broad band of frequencies and wide range of incident angles. Further, the efficacy of the algorithm has been demonstrated using a suitable case study

Engineering the microbiota to treat metabolic disorders

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) are a family of more than 500 potentially lethal congenital genetic disorders that cumulatively affect 1 in 1000 newborns. In many IEMs, pathologies manifest as a result of improper metabolism of nutrients in food. In Phenylketonuria (PKU) for example, elevated levels of phenylalanine and the accumulation of aberrant metabolic intermediates in the system lead to acute and chronic toxicities. Resultantly, many disorders within this group are generally treated through lifelong nutritional management due to the lack of alternative and pharmacological options. Longitudinal studies have indicated that even with strict adherence to a diet of synthetic supplements, patients experience chronic issues like frailty, delayed growth, and intellectual disabilities. Recently, enzyme-replacement therapies (ERT) have demonstrated promise in pre-clinical and clinical settings by providing a metabolic sink for phenylalanine in PKU. As an enhancement to traditional ERT, we are developing a novel therapeutic for IEMs associated with amino acids by expressing metabolic enzymes in lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that natively colonize the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Starting with an enzyme under clinical development for PKU, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), and by promoting the intestinal adhesion and colonization characteristics, the engineered LAB will intervene before amino acid absorption occurs in the small intestines during digestion. To engineer new enzymes with activities required for treating IEMs, we have developed a novel facile selection and screening methodology. This can potentially be utilized to enhance enzymatic properties or identify mutants with altered substrate specificity, creating a spectrum of PALs that can be used to treat IEMs associated with other amino acids. Here we describe the methodology, development, and optimization of this method. To characterize and engineer microbial adhesion to intestinal mucus, we developed a novel assay that is able to capture the quantitative and mechanistic binding thermodynamics of cells to mucus. We will discuss the development of this assay and its implementation for engineering improved mucus binding. The platform technologies discussed here will be instrumental in realizing microbiota-based therapeutics as an emerging and urgently-needed treatment for IEMs that currently have inadequate or no options