ABSTRACT
This study aims to assess the preventive measures and self?protective rights of employees at the workplace. A survey has been conducted in a steel and power industry of Angul district of Odisha (India) using a semi?structured interview schedule to assess the determinants of occupational hazards. Occupational health practices among 425 male workers were assessed from the steel and power industry using the population proportion to sample technique (PPS). Respondents from the higher educational background, skilled workers, Hindu religious group, general category, and employees with high?household income were significantly associated (P < 0.05) with self?protective rights at the workplace. Industrial workers are considered a vulnerable group with respect to the power of self?protective rights in the industry. The factors such as job insecurity, financial hardship, less education, and unskilled profession make them vulnerable, which forces them to settle with a lower level of rights at the workplace.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: During the last three decades, abortion laws have been liberalized in many parts of the world, so that termination of pregnancy is now permitted on broadly interpreted medical, psychological or social grounds. Aim: Randomised study was undertaken to compare the manual vacuum aspiration with electrical vacuum aspiration in 1st trimester MTP. Materials and methods: The study consisted of 100 pregnant women for termination of pregnancies in 1st trimester (6-12 weeks) admitted, during period of 2 years this study was carried out by using manual vacuum aspiration syringe in 50 women who formed the study group and compared with electrical vacuum aspiration in 50 women who formed the control group. Results: Majority of the patients belongs to age group between 21-25 years, Most of them were married and multigravidae requesting MTP, Longer the average procedural time observed with electrical vacuum aspiration (8.1 min) than manual vacuum aspiration (7.6 min). Average amount of blood loss compared with gestational age in both the procedure there is excessive amount of blood loss with increasing gestational age and blood loss is comparatively more with electrical vacuum aspiration (21.6 ml) than manual vacuum aspiration (16.6 ml). There are no complications during procedure with both vacuum sources. Incomplete evacuation rate with MVA was 4% and with electrical vacuum aspiration 2%. In the follow up after 1 month complications are nil with both the procedures. Conclusions: MVA procedure leads to marked improvement in the quality of abortion care, being its low maintenance, relatively inexpensive and easily transportable instrument, with eliminating need for electricity with these features combined with success in first trimester pregnancy termination.
ABSTRACT
Background: The extended care model of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) identifies knowledge/beliefs, nutritional status, mental health, control of resources/autonomy, workload/time constraints and social support as important caregiver resources for childcare. The aim of this paper is to examine the role of mothers’ caregiving resources in child-care practices in slums. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 10 slums of Hyderabad, to appraise the caregiving practices and health status of children under 5 years. Data were collected from 506 households, selected through multistage stratified random sampling, and data relating to 451 children aged 6–59 months were analysed. Four caregiving practices were studied: psychosocial stimulation, as assessed by the Home Observation Measurement of the Environment inventory; hygienic care rated by spot-check observation; and meal frequency and dietary diversity based on maternal recall. The role of the mother’s caregiving resources was examined using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: More than 50% of the children received good psychosocial stimulation and close to 60% had good hygienic care. About 75% of the children aged 6–23 months had the recommended minimum meal frequency and 13% had the recommended dietary diversity. Mother’s media exposure (odds ratio [OR] 2.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.35–3.77), participation in household budgeting (OR 2.19, CI 1.25–3.83) and husband’s support (OR 2.04, CI 1.28–3.24) were predictors of psychosocial stimulation. Mother’s younger age (OR 1.11, CI 1.04– 1.18), poor media exposure (OR 1.95, CI 1.15–3.29), dissatisfaction with life (OR 1.84, CI 1.05–3.24), workload (OR 1.79, CI 1–3.18) and having no money for their own use (OR 1.52, CI 0.95–2.45) placed children at higher odds for receiving poor hygienic care. Leisure time (OR 2.75, CI 1.25–6.06) and participation in budgeting (OR 1.97, CI 1–3.86) were predictors of meal frequency. Conclusion: Mother’s workload, poor media exposure, dissatisfaction with life, lack of husband’s support and absence of economic autonomy are constraints to good child care in slums.
ABSTRACT
High-throughput screening (HTS) involves testing of compound libraries against validated drug targets using quantitative bioassays to identify ‘hit’ molecules that modulate the activity of target, which forms the starting point of a drug discovery effort. Eicosanoids formed via cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) pathways are major players in various inflammatory disorders. As the conventional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that inhibit both the constitutive (COX-1) and the inducible (COX-2) isoforms have gastric and renal side effects and the recently developed COX-2 selective anti-inflammatory drugs (COXIBs) have cardiac side effects, efforts are being made to develop more potent and safer anti-inflammatory drugs. Current assay methods for these enzymes, such as oxygraphic, radioisotopic, spectrophotometric etc. are not compatible for screening of large number of compounds as in drug discovery programs. In the present study, HTS-compatible assays for COX-1, COX-2 and 5-LOX were developed for screening of compound libraries with the view to identify potential anti-inflammatory drug candidates. A spectrophotometric assay involving co-oxidation of tetramethyl-p-phenylene diamine (TMPD) during the reduction of prostaglandin G2 (PGG2) to PGH2 was adopted and standardized for screening of compounds against COX-1 and COX-2. Similarly, the HTS-compatible FOX (ferrous oxidation-xylenol orange) based spectrophotometric assay involving the formation of Fe3+/xylenol orange complex showing absorption in the visible range was developed for screening of compounds against 5-LOX.