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Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is a cost-effective, evidence-based intervention for preterm and low-birth-weight (LBW) infants. KMC offers several advantages, such as improved growth and sustained long-term development. Despite its numerous benefits, the adoption and implementation of KMC have been minimal. The number of hours that KMC is practiced remains minimal, even in facilities where it is already implemented. There are a number of possible obstacles to KMC, such as problems with the surroundings and resources of the facilities, unfavourable perceptions of the attitudes of the employees, and not enough knowledge about the advantages of KMC (Seidman et al., 2015).

Byline: Ashish Mehta An utterly engrossing biography seeks to make sense of arguably the most maverick politician since Independence The Life and Times of George Fernandes Rahul Ramagundam Penguin/New India [...]

When faced with negative emotions, the higher people are in alexithymia, the more likely they are to disengage from their emotions rather than engage with their emotions in an adaptive way. This emotion regulation profile is thought to explain links between alexithymia and negative life outcomes. What is not yet clear, however, is whyalexithymia is linked to this emotion regulation profile. One possible explanation is greater emotional intensity. After all, initial evidence suggests that alexithymia is related to greater negative emotional intensity, and it is widely thought that greater negative intensity predicts the use of disengagement over engagement emotion regulation strategies. To address this issue, we conducted two intensive longitudinal studies (N= 273) to test three propositions, namely that in daily life (1) alexithymia is related to greater negative emotional intensity, (2) alexithymia is related to using more disengagement and less engagement emotion regulation, and (3) negative emotional intensity is a mediator explaining the link from alexithymia to using more disengagement and less engagement emotion regulation. In Study 1, we employed a daily diary design where participants reported on a negative event from their day. In Study 2, we used an intensive experience sampling design (nine surveys per day over seven days) to examine whether negative emotion intensity mediated the relationship from alexithymia to subsequent emotion regulation orientation. As expected, we found in both studies that greater negative intensity mediated the relationship between total alexithymia and more disengagement. However, only the difficulty identifying and describing emotion facets, but not externally oriented thinking, were related to negative emotion and disengagement. Contrary to expectation, total alexithymia was unrelated to engagement in both studies. Though in Study 2 alone, we found that externally oriented thinking predicted less reappraisal.

Byline: Ashish Mehta Sitapati's new book on Vajpayee-Advani partnership is also an invaluable guide to understand BJP, Hindu nationalism Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi By Vinay Sitapati Penguin Random House, [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Pandemics or no pandemics, perennial wisdom of this sacred text remains helpful to all, as this beautiful primer shows Finding Meaning in Life with the Bhagavad Gita [...]

Climate change will alter environmental risks that influence pulmonary health, including heat, air pollution, and pollen. These exposures disproportionately burden populations already at risk of ill health, including those at vulnerable life stages, with low socioeconomic status, and systematically targeted by oppressive policies. Climate change can exacerbate existing environmental injustices by affecting future exposure, as well as through differentials in the ability to adapt; this is compounded by disparities in rates of underlying disease and access to health care. Climate change is therefore a dire threat not only to individual and population health but also to health equity.

Byline: Ashish Mehta These life studies of 26 stoics of ancient times provide a blueprint to build an inner citadel Lives of Stoics The Art of Living from Zeno to [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Book Review: 'Sit Your Self Down' by Gayatri Jayaraman Sit Your Self Down A Novice's Journey into the Heart of Vipassana By Gayatri Jayaraman Hachette India, 212 [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Chaturvedi Badrinath's work can prove therapeutic reading in today's troubled times Dharma: Hinduism and Religions in India By Chaturvedi Badrinath Edited by Tulsi Badrinath Penguin, 194+ xiii [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta For no-nonsense, time-tested tips, nothing beats this ancient Roman pamphlet In book publishing, one of the trends for the past couple of decades has been to pick [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta For no-nonsense, time-tested tips, nothing beats this ancient Roman pamphlet In book publishing, one of the trends for the past couple of decades has been to pick [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Their fame should be no disqualification but most of them end up triviliasing democracy In a 1992 Lok Sabha by-poll, voters of New Delhi - the power [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The grave crisis of climate change is not an election issue. It should be The day Amit Shah filed his election candidature papers from Gandhinagar, BJP workers [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The grave crisis of climate change is not an election issue. It should be The day Amit Shah filed his election candidature papers from Gandhinagar, BJP workers [...]

Byline: Shaj Mohan and Divya Dwivedi 'Gandhi and Philosophy', by Shaj Mohan and Divya Dwivedi, stands out among the ever increasing output of scholarship on the father of the nation. [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The cess we paid for years to improve schools has gone unused. Govt has no clue about its PSU investments. CAG reports are full of such tragi-comedies [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Going beyond armed solutions, the need of the hour is to strengthen voices of reason in the neighbourhood The Kashmir conundrum was never below the radar, but [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The Mahatma's message unfolds beautifully in this excellent selection of writings, republished for the sesquicentennial For a novice reader, MK Gandhi presents a formidable challenge. The starting [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Illustration: Ashish Asthana A medley of out-of-box ideas. Let us debate them to better understand our democracy A few years ago, we could have suggested, why not [...]

Byline: Ashish MehtaAnd the story of two exceptions: An honest officer is deemed guilty, and a top officer says no to post-retirement sinecuresThe Steel Frame of the government machinery was [...]

Byline: Ashish MehtaA top bureaucrat retiring away without sinecures is indeed noteworthy these days. If he is Hasmukh Adhia, it is outright unbelievable. Here's whyThe Razor's Edge, a 1944 novel [...]

Research has advanced considerably since the first clinical trial of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the early 1990s. During this period, our understanding of MSC biology and our ability to expand and manipulate these cells have provided hope for the repair of damaged tissues due to illness or injury. MSCs have conventionally been injected systemically or locally into target tissue; however, inconsistent cell homing and engraftment efficiencies represent a major bottleneck that has led to mixed results in clinical studies. To overcome these issues, MSCs have been pre-conditioned with biomolecules, genetically altered, or surface engineered to enhance their homing and engraftment capabilities. In parallel, a variety of cell-encapsulating materials have been designed to improve cell delivery and post-transplantation survival and function. In this review, we discuss the current strategies that have been employed on cultured MSCs to improve targeted cell delivery and retention for tissue repair. We also discuss the advances in injectable and implantable biomaterial technologies that drive the success of MSC-based therapies in regenerative medicine. Multi-faceted approaches combining cellular modification and cell-instructive material design can pave the way for efficient and robust stem cell transplantation for superior therapeutic outcomes.

Byline: Ashish Mehta Men explain things to me: Answering the nay-sayers to #MeToo The long-awaited arrival of #MeToo in India has received two kinds of receptions: cathartic yet celebratory cacophony [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Rahul and Co should focus less on arithmetic, more on the democratic of its parts Narendra Modi has finally emerged as the architect of unity - of [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Consolidating in BJP's strongholds may remain a challenge BJP is leading in Karnataka elections. This once again proves that prime minister Narendra Modi's popularity is intact, despite [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The distance between Davos words and Delhi deeds is not unbridgeable In his justly praised speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, prime minister Narendra Modi [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Majoritarianism is the trump card, as Congress fails to offer a counter-narrative The BJP has formed the sixth government in Gujarat. Not counting a bump in 1996-98 [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Dynastic politics is not a big problem; lack of internal democracy is Rahul Gandhi has become the president of India's grand old party. Nobody else wanted to, [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta 1934 The first elections After the British law paved the way for representational assemblies, the first elections were held in 1934. Gujarat was then part of Bombay [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta In a mere five years, AAP has shown us all - from the potential in politics to its realities The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) celebrated its fifth [...]

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) is a self-report measure designed to assess the two most widely studied strategies of Gross' model: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Even though there are two Spanish adaptations of the ERQ, region-specific linguistic factors and dialects must also be considered when adapting a test for another country in order to ensure equivalent evaluations across cultures. The present work developed an Argentinean adaptation of the ERQ. Additionally, the study evaluated its psychometric properties and associations with theoretically related constructs. Study 1 consist of the translation the ERQ into Argentinean Spanish and the analysis of its internal structure and reliability in a sample of 2957 participants. The results supported a two-factor structure with good data fit, adequate factor loadings, and good test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Expected age and gender differences in the use of reappraisal and suppression were also observed. Study 2 analyzed the external validity (concurrent and convergent) of the ERQ adaptation in a sample of 2160 participants. Theory-consistent associations were found with emotion regulation mechanisms, anxiety, depression, and personality traits. In summary, the findings support the validity of a new ERQ adaptation and its use in Argentina.

Byline: Ashish Mehta IMF makes case for basic income in India - by doing away with subsidies Universal basic income (UBI) is the latest idea doing rounds in policy briefs. [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Bhikhu Parekh, political scientist and gandhi scholar At 82, Baron Bhikhu Parekh remains as sprightly as ever. He is no longer teaching in classrooms but continues his [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The Jai-Veeru friendship of the two leaders ended decades ago. The completely different paths politics has taken them on is a study in the vagaries of luck [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta The Jai-Veeru friendship of Vaghela and Modi ended decades ago. The completely different paths politics has taken them on is a study in vagaries of luck and [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Forgotten lessons from the Champaran satyagraha - India's 'first direct object-lesson in Civil Disobedience', as its prime mover described it The Champaran movement, now a century old, [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta It was a mandate for majoritarianism. And 2019 won't be any different Did the choice of Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh chief minister surprise you? He faces [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Here is a proposition: Narendra Modi is the top thinker, the top intellectual of our times. Is that an exaggerated claim? Not altogether. Here's why. After Brexit [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Modi said nothing wrong - and he's the first to learn from the good doctor Prime minister Narendra Modi's comment on his predecessor Manmohan Singh's alleged practice [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Universal basic income, an idea from medieval European philosophy, is offered as the mother of all welfare schemes. Money for nothing, which unburdens your mind to a [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta KVIC calendar shows that the organisation has changed its role from promoting khadi to promoting Modi There are two kinds of acts from the so-called fringe elements [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta Currency pain - or purification bliss - is very much on top of the voter's mind but what if there's a split verdict? The dangal is on. [...]

The growth of neural network-based soft sensors has been hampered due to the complication of traditional neural net development and inability of neural networks to handle changes. The process of automating the model development process is described.

Byline: Ashish Mehta Jignesh Mevani, leader, Una Dalit Atyachar Ladat Samiti It's different this time.' Jignesh Mevani also repeats that adage, that the dalit agitation in Gujarat this time is [...]

Notes of a social science nomad Theatres of Democracy: Between the epic and the everyday Shiv Visvanathan, Edited by Chandan Gowda HarperCollins India 430 pages, Rs 699 Shiv Visvanathan rightly [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta On a conversation between a head of state and an author about democracy The Uncommon Reader, a little gem of a novella by British author Alan Bennett, [...]

Byline: Ashish Mehta When Nobel award goes to monument of courage, our writers are returning theirs for all-round lack of it A majority of readers had not heard of Svetlana [...]

Title:Quality Improvement project for reducing hypothermia on admission in newborns admitted to a neonatal care unit in a large academic tertiary (Level 3A) NICU in Ahmedabad, Western India.Background:Neonatal hypothermia is a common and dangerous condition around the world. Moderate and severe hypothermia increase mortality and morbidity and predispose the fragile neonate to an increased risk of late-onset neonatal sepsis (LONS), intraventricular hemorrhage, and worsening of respiratory distress. Around 60% of neonates who are admitted to level 3 tertiary NICU in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, had a temperature below 36.5°C on admission.Method:We conducted plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles to test and adapt solutions for decreasing hypothermia in neonates admitted to NICU. Identifying the root cause of hypothermia in terms of Manpower, Material, and Methods and enlisting them as fishbone diagrams. We adopted the strategy of using a transport incubator in the Ambulance and turning on the incubator before thirty minutes of delivery for preventing neonatal hypothermia.Results:Within 8 months of starting our quality improvement project, the proportion of neonates who were hypothermic on admission decreased from 57% to 8%, Normothermic on admission increased from 23% to 53%, with an increase in mean admission temperature from 35.4°C during the pre-intervention phase to 36.6°C during post-intervention. There was also a reduction in the incidence of late-onset sepsis from 23% (pre-intervention phase) to 13% and subsequently 5% in the post-intervention period.Conclusion:This study is a cost-effective approach to reducing admission hypothermia in NICU in a resource-limited setting with all outborn babies. Our study also emphasizes the importance of maintaining euthermia, not only in delivery rooms but also during transportation.