Tele-recruitment for Donor Retention

Blood transfusion services are the integral part of health care system and these services have safe blood transfusion as the major goal. Voluntary blood donation is the key to safe blood and this safety is further enhanced when the voluntary blood donors become repeat/regular donors. Retention of donors is therefore a very crucial strategy to ensure enhanced blood safety. Tele-recruitment is an effective medium of recruiting and more importantly retaining donors via means of telephone/Short Message Service. This study was carried out at a standalone blood bank during the period from January to December 2011 with objectives of donor retention, relationship management with the support of personnel with good communication skills, Donor data base, Integrated software and communication facility. For Initial 4 months there was no tele-recruiter, then for 2 months two tele-recruiter and for next 6 months three tele-recruiter were dedicated. Only impact of tele-recruitment on in-house donation was taken into consideration. 2,091 donors were recruited through tele-recruitment in this eight-month period. This was 63 % of in-house donations and 13 % of total donations. In other words out of every five in-house donations, three donations were from people contacted through tele-recruitment. Repeat voluntary blood donation is the safest donation. Tele-recruitment does this by converting 'first-time' donors into repeat/regular donors. Simple intervention like reminder calls on telephone can be highly effective tool to retain donors. Tele-recruitment helped the blood center establish relationships with individual donors, and, maybe, even the society at large. Tele-recruitment is a very low-cost model which can be easily replicated in all kind of blood banks, be it standalone, or a hospital based. Even the blood centers which are largely dependent on replacement donors can possibly have good results and convert replacement donors into repeat/regular voluntary blood donors.

Perceptions and concerns of women undergoing Pap smear examination in a tertiary care hospital of India

BACKGROUND

Cervical cancer is one of the major causes of deaths due to cancer among women in India. Pap smear is one of the best methods to detect early changes in cervix. However, there is lack of data on awareness level of women about Pap smear and various risk factors for cervical cancer.

OBJECTIVES

To study the awareness about various risk factors for cervical cancer, health-seeking behavior and hygienic practices among women and to assess the distress experienced by these women before the Pap smear examination.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study was carried out on women coming for a Pap smear examination in a tertiary teaching hospital in New Delhi. A pretested interview schedule was used to get information after obtaining their informed consent.

RESULTS

Fifty-seven percent stated that they did not consult a doctor when they noticed the symptoms the first time. Sixty-one percent did not know what a cervical cancer is and a same percentage of women did not know what a Pap smear examination was. Older age group, Muslim and literate women had higher number of abnormal Pap smear results. Women who reported being stressed in their lives had higher number of abnormal smears as compared to women who claimed to lead a stress free life. Poor hygienic practices among these women from urban areas were also associated with abnormal Pap smear results.

CONCLUSION

The study concluded that factors such as poor awareness, shyness, poor hygiene, and old age could be responsible for abnormal Pap smears and this needs special attention in cancer prevention activities of the government.

Cloning and characterization of chicken fat mass and obesity associated (Fto) gene: fasting affects Fto expression

Fat mass and obesity associated gene (Fto), also known as Fatso, is a member of the Fe-II and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase superfamily. Recent studies in humans and rodents suggest that Fto is involved in food intake regulation and lipid metabolism, whereas single nucleotide mutations in the Fto gene are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. The Fto gene is highly conserved from green algae to humans, but little is known about the avian Fto gene or protein. The objectives of the current study were to clone full-length chicken Fto cDNA and to determine the effect of age or feeding status on Fto expression. With the use of rapid amplification of cDNA ends, the full-length chicken Fto cDNA was cloned and found to share 63% to 66% homology with the mammalian Fto nucleotide sequence. Several regions of the chicken Fto protein, including the substrate (2-oxoglutarate) binding domains, were found to be identical to mammalian Fto protein. Western blotting with anti-human Fto antibody and reverse transcription PCR studies showed that Fto protein and gene were ubiquitously expressed in various tissues of the chicken. With the use of quantitative PCR, Fto mRNA levels were found to be higher in liver and skeletal muscle of 8-wk-old chickens than in 4-wk-old chickens. In addition, alterations in feeding status resulted in significant changes in Fto mRNA and Fto protein expression in the liver but not in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue of broiler chickens. Taken together, our data suggest that Fto probably plays a significant role in liver function and energy metabolism in the chicken.

Parthenocarpic potential in Capsicum annuum L. is enhanced by carpelloid structures and controlled by a single recessive gene

BACKGROUND

Parthenocarpy is a desirable trait in Capsicum annuum production because it improves fruit quality and results in a more regular fruit set. Previously, we identified several C. annuum genotypes that already show a certain level of parthenocarpy, and the seedless fruits obtained from these genotypes often contain carpel-like structures. In the Arabidopsis bel1 mutant ovule integuments are transformed into carpels, and we therefore carefully studied ovule development in C. annuum and correlated aberrant ovule development and carpelloid transformation with parthenocarpic fruit set.

RESULTS

We identified several additional C. annuum genotypes with a certain level of parthenocarpy, and confirmed a positive correlation between parthenocarpic potential and the development of carpelloid structures. Investigations into the source of these carpel-like structures showed that while the majority of the ovules in C. annuum gynoecia are unitegmic and anatropous, several abnormal ovules were observed, abundant at the top and base of the placenta, with altered integument growth. Abnormal ovule primordia arose from the placenta and most likely transformed into carpelloid structures in analogy to the Arabidopsis bel1 mutant. When pollination was present fruit weight was positively correlated with seed number, but in the absence of seeds, fruit weight proportionally increased with the carpelloid mass and number. Capsicum genotypes with high parthenocarpic potential always showed stronger carpelloid development. The parthenocarpic potential appeared to be controlled by a single recessive gene, but no variation in coding sequence was observed in a candidate gene CaARF8.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that in the absence of fertilization most C. annuum genotypes, have parthenocarpic potential and carpelloid growth, which can substitute developing seeds in promoting fruit development.

Models of information exchange for UK telehealth systems

AIM

The aim of the paper was to identify the models of information exchange for UK telehealth systems.

METHODOLOGY

Twelve telehealth offerings were evaluated and models representing the information exchange routes were constructed. Questionnaires were used to validate the diagrammatical representations of the models with a response rate of 55%.

RESULTS

The models were classified as possessing four sections: preparing for data transfer, data transfer, information generation and information transfer from health professional to patient. In preparing for data transfer, basic data entry was automated in most systems though additional inputs (i.e. information about diet, lifestyle and medication) could be entered before the data was sent into the telehealth system. For the data transfer aspect, results and additional inputs were sent to intermediate devices, which were connectors between point-of-care devices, patients and health professionals. Data were then forwarded to either a web portal, a remote database or a monitoring/call centre. Information generation was either through computational methods or through the expertise of health professionals. Information transfer to the patient occurred in four forms: email, telehealth monitor message, text message or phone call.

CONCLUSION

On comparing the models, three generic models were outlined. Five different forms of information exchange between users of the system were identified: patient-push, system-stimulation, dialogue, health professional-pull and observation. Patient-push and health professional-pull are the dominant themes from the telehealth offerings evaluated.

Epitaxial Growth of Magnetic Nickel Nanodots by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Epitaxial nickel magnetic nanodots were obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique on Si (100) substrate using epitaxial TiN film as the template. Characterization methods include: high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) Z-contrast imaging, selected area electron diffraction (SAD), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The results showed that as long as no coalescence between neighboring dots occurred, the dots are all single crystal. The predominant orientation relationship observed is Ni (100) // TiN (100) // Si (100), the so-called “cube-on-cube” orientation relationship. Other rotational orientation relationships, where the nickel crystal rotates an angle with respect to TiN (011) directions, were also observed. The dots are in faceted island shapes, bounded by (111) and (001) facets. The actual size of dots varies from a few nanometers to tens of nanometers, depending on the deposition time and temperature. The shape of a certain dot was found to be closely related to its epitaxial orientation. Effects of deposition temperature and template crystalline quality were studied. It was found that deposition temperature in a certain range does not have much influence on the epitaxial orientation of dots, while the crystalline quality of titanium nitride (the underlying template) is primarily responsible for the orientation variation. At the optimum condition, samples with a large fraction of cube-on-cube orientated nickel dots could be obtained in a rather wide temperature range (up to 250 °C), as evidenced by the strong reflections from both SAD and XRD. Samples containing more than one layer of nickel and titanium nitride matrix were also studied. The results showed that the degree of orientation perfection could be greatly improved by decreasing the size of dots.

Orbital rhabdomyosarcoma in an adult

INTRODUCTION

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common primary orbital malignant tumor in children. Orbital lesions represent about 10 % of all the cases of rhabdomyosarcoma. Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare cause of proptosis in adults.

OBJECTIVE

To report a case of primary orbital rhabdomyosarcoma in a 45-year-old female.

DESIGN

Interventional case report. The main outcome measures are a rare cause ofproptosis in an adult, discussion on treatment options and prognosis ofrhabdomyosarcoma.

RESULT

The patient underwent total orbital exenteration and was referred for radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare cause of proptosis in adults. It should be suspected in a case of rapidly-progressive proptosis in adults.

Natural prevalence of antibody titers to glucosyltransferase of Streptococcus mutans in serum in high and low caries active children

In this investigation, serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin A (IgA) titers, as well as total immunoglobulin concentration (IgG + IgA + IgM), were found to be raised with the increase in the number of dental caries. Only the total serum antibody titer in high dental caries (HDC) group was found to be significantly raised as compared to no dental carries (NDC) group. Although the IgG and IgA titers were raised in blood with the increased number of caries, the results were not statistically significant. However, we could not find any correlation between serum antibodies and dental caries except that there was an increased trend of serum antibodies to GTF with the increased number of carious lesions.