Level of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness among Pregnant Women Residing In Urban Slums of Shivamogga City, India

Background: Safe motherhood is about informing and educating woman about danger signs in pregnancy, how to identify and seek advice from health personnel and prepare for safe confinement. In public health system, in India it is the responsibility of ASHA to motivate the pregnant woman in her area for safe institutional delivery. BPACR is a tool which assesses, how well the pregnant women are prepared for the challenges in pregnancy. Aim& Objective: To ascertain the level of awareness of Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (BPACR) among antenatal mothers residing in urban slums . Methodology: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant women residing in urban slums of Shivamogga, Karnataka. Data was collected using pre-designed questionnaire, 揗onitoring BP/CR?tools and indicators for maternal and new born health� of the 揓HPIEGO�. Data was analysed and results were tabulated. Results: In this study, only 42% of pregnant women knew about the term 態irth preparedness� while the rest 58% pregnant women did not know it. Education status and complication experienced during present or previous pregnancy were found to have significant association with BPACR. Identification of blood donor and skilled birth provider were less among study group. Conclusions: Awareness of danger signs and complication readiness was found to be good in our study.

A descriptive study to assess the awareness of communication and social mobilization activities for tuberculosis control among households in rural area of Shivamogga, Karnataka

Background: Advocacy, communication, and social mobilization addresses four key challenges such as improving case detection and treatment adherence, reducing stigma and discrimination, empowering tuberculosis (TB) patients, and mobilizing the resources and political commitment required to combat TB. A multipronged approach included activities to disseminate information through information, education, and communication materials, and simultaneously initiating community-based activities by actively involving and sensitizing communities on TB. Objectives: The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) To assess the awareness of communication and social mobilization activities among households in rural field practice area of Shimoga Institute of Medical Sciences, Shivamogga and (2) to know the preferred sources of communication and social mobilization activities among households in rural field practice area of Shimoga Institute of Medical Sciences, Shivamogga. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted among households in rural field practice area of Shimoga Institute of Medical Sciences, Shivamogga. After taking approval from the Institutional Ethical Committee, data were collected by doing house-to-house visits until all the houses in that particular village were covered. After taking informed consent, every household willing to be a part of the study was subjected to personal interviews using a semi-structured and pre-tested questionnaire, which was initially developed in English, and all the questions were translated into local language Kannada for the target population. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. Results: Of 100 households covered, females (74%) were more compared to males (26%), and among media information sources of TB; unaware (43%), television (TV) (26%), posters in health center (5%), and among community information source of TB; and unaware (34%), health-care provider (36%), and peers (11%). Most of them preferred TV and health-care providers as the priority to disseminate health education. Conclusion: The awareness of communication and social mobilization activities is very poor among rural people, which requires effective use of media information sources such as TV, radio, and digital innovations to convey the information with high priority to community participation in all social mobilization activities.

SSR and AFLP based genetic diversity of soybean germplasm differing in photoperiod sensitivity

Forty-four soybean genotypes with different photoperiod response were selected after screening of 1000 soybean accessions under artificial condition and were profiled using 40 SSR and 5 AFLP primer pairs. The average polymorphism information content (PIC) for SSR and AFLP marker systems was 0.507 and 0.120, respectively. Clustering of genotypes was done using UPGMA method for SSR and AFLP and correlation was 0.337 and 0.504, respectively. Mantel's correlation coefficients between Jaccard's similarity coefficient and the cophenetic values were fairly high in both the marker systems (SSR = 0.924; AFLP = 0.958) indicating very good fit for the clustering pattern. UPGMA based cluster analysis classified soybean genotypes into four major groups with fairly moderate bootstrap support. These major clusters corresponded with the photoperiod response and place of origin. The results indicate that the photoperiod insensitive genotypes, 11/2/1939 (EC 325097) and MACS 330 would be better choice for broadening the genetic base of soybean for this trait.

Physical mapping, expression analysis and polymorphism survey of resistance gene analogues on chromosome 11 of rice.

Rice is the fi rst cereal genome with a fi nished sequence and a model crop that has important syntenic relationships with other cereal species. The objectives of our study were to identify resistance gene analogue (RGA) sequences from chromosome 11 of rice, understand their expression in other cereals and dicots by in silico analysis, determine their presence on other rice chromosomes, and evaluate the extent of polymorphism and actual expression in a set of rice genotypes. A total of 195 RGAs were predicted and physically localised. Of these, 91.79% expressed in rice, and 51.28% expressed in wheat, which was the highest among other cereals. Among monocots, sugarcane showed the highest (78.92%) expression, while among dicots, RGAs were maximally expressed in Arabidopsis (11.79%). Interestingly, two of the chromosome 11-specifi c RGAs were found to be expressing in all the organisms studied. Eighty RGAs of chromosome 11 had signifi cant homology with chromosome 12, which was the maximum among all the rice chromosomes. Thirty-one per cent of the RGAs used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplifi cation showed polymorphism in a set of rice genotypes. Actual gene expression analysis revealed post-inoculation induction of one RGA in the rice line IRBB-4 carrying the bacterial blight resistance gene Xa-4. Our results have implications for the development of sequence-based markers and functional validation of specifi c RGAs in rice.

Congenital toxoplasmosis presenting as hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.

A 17-yr-old boy presented with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism due to sequelae of intrauterine infection with Toxoplasma Gondii. Neuroendocrine manifestations of congenital toxoplasmosis are especially uncommon. It is our attempt to stress the importance of endocrine monitoring for early recognition of treatable sequelae. This may help to improve the quality of life in these patients.

Yunis Varon syndrome.

In this communication is reported a neonate with Yunis Varon syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder, born to a consanguineously married couple who had microcephaly, wide cranial sutures, prominent eyes, hypertelorism, dysplastic ears, sparse hairs, cupid bow like upper lip with median pseudocleft and labio-gingival retraction. Bilateral hypoplasia of thumbs, absent great toes, short phalanges were other features. Additional features in this case included median pseudocleft unreported earlier and C.T. findings of underdeveloped gyri, ischemic changes in temperoparietal region and bilateral lacunar infarcts in middle cerebral artery territory.

Bilateral simultaneous total knee replacement under combined spinal epidural anaesthesia.

This is a case report of 68 yrs old lady who underwent simultaneous both knee joint replacement for chronic and advanced osteoarthritis. The case was performed solely under combined spinal and epidural anaesthesia (CSE). CSE is a neuroaxial block performed for different types of lower limb and abdominal surgeries.