Search

Studies from high-income countries report associations of preeclampsia (PE) with reduced cognitive function and adverse behavioural outcomes in children. We examined these associations in Indian children aged 5-7 years. Children of mothers with PE (n=74) and without PE (non-PE; n=234) were recruited at delivery at Bharati Hospital, Pune, India. The cognitive performance was assessed using 3 core tests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery and additional tests including Verbal fluency, Kohs block design, and Coding A (from Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children). The parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to assess children's behavioral characteristics. Scores were compared between children from PE and non-PE groups, and associations analyzed further using regression models, adjusted for potential confounders. After adjusting for age, sex, socio-economic status and maternal education, children of PE mothers had lower Kohs block design scores (adjusted odds ratio per score category 0.57, [95% CI 0.34-0.96] p=0.034; 0.62 [95%CI (0.36, 1.07), p=0.09 on further adjustment for birth weight and gestation) compared to children of mothers without PE. In the SDQ, there was a lower prevalence of abnormal 'conduct problem' scores in PE group than non-PE group (OR=0.33, 95% CI 0.13-0.83, p=0.018, in the fully adjusted model); there were no differences for other behavioral domains. This preliminary study in Indian children suggests that fetal exposure to maternal PE may have an adverse impact on visuo-spatial performance but does not adversely affect behavior. Further studies with larger sample sizes are essential to understand effects of maternal PE on cognitive/behavioral outcomes in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Adolescent diet, physical activity and nutritional status are generally known to be sub-optimal. This is an introduction to a special issue of papers devoted to exploring factors affecting diet and physical activity in adolescents, including food insecure and vulnerable groups. Setting: Eight settings including urban, peri-urban and rural across sites from five different low- and middle-income countries. Design: Focus groups with adolescents and caregivers carried out by trained researchers. Results: Our results show that adolescents, even in poor settings, know about healthy diet and lifestyles. They want to have energy, feel happy, look good and live longer, but their desire for autonomy, a need to 'belong' in their peer group, plus vulnerability to marketing exploiting their aspirations, leads them to make unhealthy choices. They describe significant gender, culture and context-specific barriers. For example, urban adolescents had easy access to energy dense, unhealthy foods bought outside the home, whereas junk foods were only beginning to permeate rural sites. Among adolescents in Indian sites, pressure to excel in exams meant that academic studies were squeezing out physical activity time. Conclusions: Interventions to improve adolescents' diets and physical activity levels must therefore address structural and environmental issues and influences in their homes and schools, since it is clear that their food and activity choices are the product of an interacting complex of factors. In the next phase of work, the Transforming Adolescent Lives through Nutrition consortium will employ groups of adolescents, caregivers and local stakeholders in each site to develop interventions to improve adolescent nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent modernized world, utilization of natural resources (renewable & non-renewable) is increasing drastically due to the sophisticated life style of the people. The over-consumption of non-renewable resources causes pollution which leads to global warming. Consequently, government agencies have been taking several initiatives to control the over-consumption of non-renewable natural resources and encourage the production of renewable energy resources. In this regard, we introduce an IoT powered integrated framework called as green home architecture (GHA) for green score calculation based on the usage of natural resources for household purpose. Green score is a credit point (i.e.,10 pts) of a family which can be calculated once in a month based on the utilization of energy, production of renewable energy and pollution caused. The green score can be improved by reducing the consumption of energy, generation of renewable energy and preventing the pollution. The main objective of GHA is to monitor the day-to-day usage of resources and calculate the green score using the proposed green score algorithm. This algorithm gives positive credits for economic consumption of resources and production of renewable energy and also it gives negative credits for pollution caused. Here, we recommend a green score based tax calculation system which gives tax exemption based on the green score value. This direct beneficiary model will appreciate and encourage the citizens to consume fewer natural resources and prevent pollution. Rather than simply giving subsidy, this proposed system allows monitoring the subsidy scheme periodically and encourages the proper working system with tax exemption rewards. Also, our GHA will be used to monitor all the household appliances, vehicles, wind mills, electricity meter, water re-treatment plant, pollution level to read the consumption/production in appropriate units by using the suitable sensors. These values will be stored in mass storage platform like cloud for the calculation of green score and also employed for billing purpose by the government agencies. This integrated platform can replace the manual billing and directly benefits the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: There is a paucity of data regarding the outcomes of Heart transplantation in children from the Indian subcontinent. The data of patients under the age of 18 undergoing an isolated heart transplantation was analyzed for patient clinical profiles and risk factors for early and medium-term mortality. Hospital mortality was defined as death within 90 days of transplantation and medium-term survival as follow up of up to 6 years. Materials and Methods: A total of 97 patients operated between March 2014 and October 2019 were included in this study.Data was collected about their INTERMACS status, pulmonary vascular resistance, donor heart ischemic times, donor age, donor to recipient weight ratio and creatinine levels. Results: The age range was from 1 to 18 with a mean of 10.6 ± 4.6 years. 67 % patients were in INTERMACS category 3 or less.12 children were on mechanical circulatory support at the time of transplant. The 90 day survival was 89 %.The risk factors for hospital mortality was lower INTERMACS category (odd's ratio 0.2143, P = 0.026), elevated creatinine (odd's ratio 5.42, P = 0.076) and elevated right atrial pressure (odd's ratio 1.19, P = 0.015).Ischemic time, pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) and PVR index (PVRI) had no effect on 90 day survival. Kaplan Meier estimates for 5 year survival was 73 %.The medium term survival was affected by INTERMACS category (Hazard ratio 0.7, P =.078) , donor age > 25 (Hazard ratio 1.6, P = 0.26) and raised serum creatinine values.(Hazard ratio 2.7, P = 0.012). All the survivors are in good functional class. Conclusions: Excellent outcomes are possible after heart transplantation in a pediatric population even in a resource constrained environment of a developing economy. More efforts are needed to promote pediatric organ donation and patients need to be referred in better INTERMACS category for optimal outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed at evaluating the genetic variability of different germplasms and comparative effectiveness of morphological descriptors, floral and reproductive biology of three CPTs of annatto viz.,Tamil Nadu (green fruited), Kerala (red fruited), Karnataka (dark red fruited) at department of Forest Biology and Tree improvement, Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam during 2017-19. A record on sequence of flowering ascends along the latitudes. The sequence of flowering is top to bottom (basipetal) that is the development, maturation or opening from the apex towards the base in the sequence. It commenced from the southern side to the south eastern side. The colour of the flower is whitish pink in Tamil Nadu, moderate pink in Karnataka and dark pink in Kerala and this floral colour polymorphism suggests that pollinators (mainly bumble bees and ants) are the primary selective agents which influence flower colour. The stain I-KI showed 95 % pollen viability and it is found that the viability of the pollen grains decreased after four hours from pollen dehiscence and tricolporate pollen was observed in annatto. The observation on fruit set indicated that bixa plant can have both self- and cross-pollination. Fruit maturity takes place 80 -- 95 days counting from the day of pollination to fruit dehiscence. The shape of the fruit resembles rounded oblong pyriform. Maximum seed production was recorded in the red fruited (collected from Karnataka) (113.12 g) plant followed by the dark red fruited plant (Kerala) and the green fruited variant (TN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]