Outcomes of deliveries in a midwife-run labour room located at an urban health centre: results of a 5-year retrospective study

BACKGROUND

We report the short-term maternal and neonatal outcomes for all deliveries conducted in a midwiferun labour room located at an urban health centre serving an urban population of Vellore, Tamil Nadu.

METHODS

This 5-year (2005-10) retrospective study included all birth records including those of women and neonates transferred to our tertiary care referral centre. Maternal and neonatal outcomes were analysed among deliveries in the urban health centre and at the tertiary care referral centre.

RESULTS

There were 1873 deliveries during the study period. One-third of women (679, 36.3%) were referred to the tertiary care centre. Seven (0.6%) women had postpartum haemorrhage. There were neither any maternal deaths nor any women with postpartum sepsis. Among the neonates, there were 20 (1.7%) stillbirths, 4 (0.3%) early neonatal deaths and 56 (4.7%) born with an Apgar score of <8.

CONCLUSION

Skilled midwife care during the antenatal period and during labour leads to good maternal and neonatal health outcomes. Implementing similar programmes could immensely improve the maternal and neonatal health indicators of India.

Stroke after multiple bee sting

Bee stings are commonly encountered worldwide. Various manifestations after bee sting have been described. Local reactions are common. Unusually, manifestations like vomiting, diarrhea, dyspnea, generalized edema, acute renal failure, hypotension and collapse may occur. Rarely vasculitis, serum sickness, neuritis and encephalitis have been described which generally develop days to weeks after a sting. We report a case of a 25-year-old male who developed left sided monoparesis and transient visual loss following multiple bee stings. Unlike the previous case reports, in our case there has been involvement of both the anterior circulation and posterior circulation territory to the brain. We report this case due to it's rarity.

Integration of Multi-Level Copper Metallization into a High Performance Sub-0.25μM Technology

We report the integration of six levels of Cu interconnects using dual inlaid patterning in a 0.2 μm logic technology. A review of process technology as well as device performance shortcomings using conventional aluminum metallization has been presented. Two tantalum based barriers, TaNx and Ta-Si-N as well as a titanium based barrier, CVD TiN, have been evaluated for their applicability. The use of embedded barriers wherein the barrier is formed below the surface of the dielectric has also been discussed as a potential option. No degradation to the device front-end parametrics were found with the choice of an appropriate barrier. Planarization by Cu CMP introduces surface topography that needs to be minimized in order to process multiple levels of interconnects within specified sheet resistance distributions for a range of line widths. Excellent results with highly planarized levels of metallization have consistently been achieved through an optimization of the unit processes and device integration.

Indian scales and inventories

This conceptual, perspective and review paper on Indian scales and inventories begins with clarification on the historical and contemporary meanings of psychometry before linking itself to the burgeoning field of clinimetrics in their applications to the practice of clinical psychology and psychiatry. Clinimetrics is explained as a changing paradigm in the design, administration, and interpretation of quantitative tests, techniques or procedures applied to measurement of clinical variables, traits and processes. As an illustrative sample, this article assembles a bibliographic survey of about 105 out of 2582 research papers (4.07%) scanned through 51 back dated volumes covering 185 issues related to clinimetry as reviewed across a span of over fifty years (1958-2009) in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry. A content analysis of the contributions across distinct categories of mental measurements is explained before linkages are proposed for future directions along these lines.

Mathematics Anxiety, Mathematics Performance and Overall Academic Performance in High School Students

This paper examined the relationship between Mathematics anxiety, Mathematics performances and overall academic performance in high school students. 424 (111 males and 113 females) of high school students from three states in South India, responded to a Mathematics Anxiety Scale and Socio Demographic Questionnaire. The effects of gender on Mathematics anxiety, Mathematics performance and overall academic performance were examined and after data collection Pearson Correlation Analysis and two Independent Sample T test were used to analyze the data. Consequences reveal that Mathematics Anxiety significantly has negative correlation with Mathematics performances and overall academic performance. Moreover it was found that there is significant gender difference in Mathematics anxiety, whereas there is no significant difference between boys and girls in Mathematics performances and academic performance.

Transgenic resistance by N gene of a Peanut bud necrosis virus isolate of characteristic phylogeny

The nucleocapsid protein (N) gene of a Tospovirus devastating tomato crop in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu was cloned and characterized. The high identity of the cloned sequence to a Peanut bud necrosis virus (PBNV) tomato isolate (97.8/99.6% nucleotide/amino acid) and a PBNV peanut isolate (94.4/96.3% nucleotide/amino acid) identified the Tospovirus as an isolate of PBNV, designated PBNV Coimbatore tomato (PBNV CT) isolate. Phylogenetic analysis of PBNV CT N gene provided useful insights into the movement and evolution of PBNV within Indian Territory. The characteristic phylogeny of PBNV CT N gene implied its potential to be an efficient transgene to confer effective PBNV resistance on crop plants. The efficacy of PBNV CT N gene in conferring PBNV resistance was studied by generating tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Wisconsin) lines transgenic to the sense or antisense version of the gene. Several transgenic lines showed transgenic mRNA and/or protein accumulation, ranging from very high to undetectable levels, accompanied by different degrees of PBNV resistance. The undetectable or very low levels of transgene transcripts in certain PBNV-resistant sense or antisense N gene transgenic lines suggested RNA-mediated resistance by post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) mechanism. However, PBNV resistance of certain transgenic lines with high levels of N gene transcripts was suggestive of possible operation of RNA-mediated non-PTGS mechanism(s) of resistance in those lines. Moreover, the high levels of N protein in certain PBNV-resistant sense N gene transgenic lines suggested protein-mediated resistance. The results predict the potential of PBNV CT N gene to confer effective PBNV resistance on tomato and other economically important crops.

Pulmonary hypertension in rheumatoid arthritis--relation with the duration of the disease

Isolated pulmonary hypertension with clinical implication is rare in rheumatoid arthritis. We sought to study the prevalence of pulmonary arterial hypertension in an unselected population of 45 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (classified according to the ARA criteria) without cardiac disease and corresponding age and sex matched controls by Doppler echocardiography. The pulmonary artery systolic pressure was higher in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (27.49+/-12.66 mm Hg) than in controls (20.40+/-8.88) (p=0.003). Incidence of pulmonary artery systolic pressure>30 mm Hg suggesting pulmonary hypertension was significantly higher in patients with RA (26.7% versus 4.5% in controls; p=0.03) and 20% of patients had pulmonary hypertension without lung disease or cardiac disease evident on pulmonary function testing, and echocardiogram respectively. There was also a strong correlation between the pulmonary artery pressure and the disease duration (r=0.68, p<0.0001) suggesting a subclinical involvement of the pulmonary vasculature with disease progression and may be relevant to the high incidence of cardiovascular deaths observed in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.