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Infant and young child feeding practices remain a public health challenge in India. We determined the socio-demographic risk factors for early initiation, exclusive breastfeeding and prelacteal feeding in the urban slums of Pune city.A cross sectional survey of mother (

Background This study characterized undernutrition among children (0–24 months) by age groups specified for Infant and Young Child-feeding (IYCF) and determined the association between child malnutrition and IYCF. Methods This cross-sectional survey recruited mother-children dyads (N = 1443). WHO standards were used to assess nutritional status and IYCF indicators. Multivariate analyses were performed to assess the association between IYCF and nutritional indicators. Results Stunting, underweight, wasting, overweight, and obesity were prevalent in 33.1%, 26%, 20.2%, 4.6%, and 2.9% of the children, respectively. Age-wise distribution of undernutrition identified severity of stunting and underweight at 10–24 months (median < -1.6 SD; < -1.2 SD; 25th percentile at -2.6 & -2.2 SD respectively) and wasting highest at 0–6 months (25th percentile close to -2SD). Boys manifested higher stunting (lower value -5.2 SD) and were more wasted (lower value -4.7 SD). IYCF prevalence recorded early initiation at 45.2%, exclusive breastfeeding at 23.1%, and prelacteal and bottle-feeding at 37.5 and 22.5% respectively. Child minimum diet diversity (MDD) ≥4 was not achieved by 84%. Minimum meal frequency and minimum acceptable diet were achieved by 75% and 14% respectively. Bottle-feeding increased the odds of wasting [AOR: 1.501 (95% CI: 1.062–2.121)], severe stunting [AOR: 1.595 (95% CI: 1.079–2.358)] and underweight [AOR: 1.519 (95% CI 1.102–2.094)]. Wasting according to BAZ scores was associated with delayed initiation of breastfeeding [AOR: 1.387 (95% CI: 1.018–1.889)] and bottle feeding [AOR: 1.538 (95% CI: 1.087–2.175)]. Delayed introduction of complementary feeding increased the odds of severe stunting [AOR: 2.189 (95% CI: 1.090–4.399)]. Formula feeding increased the odds of underweight [AOR: 1.738 (95% CI: 1.046–2.888)] and obesity [AOR: 4.664 (95% CI: 1.351–16.10)]. Prelacteal feeding increased the odds of severe forms of stunting and underweight by 56% and 79% respectively, and overweight by 96%. Conclusion Setting and age-specific interventions to improve age-appropriate child-feeding practices are vital to address the double burden of malnutrition in the critical age group.

In this paper a 3 bit chipless RFID tag able to be printed using mass production techniques is introduced. The structure proposed is based on dipole like structures and three of such dipoles conforms a tag. Several chipless RFID tag prototypes were fabricated on PET substrate and measured within the frequency band from 2 GHz to 5 GHz. In contrast to the already reported printed tags where inkjet printing is used, the proposed tag is fabricated using screen printing techniques which enable fast mass production of tags in a very short time with thick conductive tracks of ~10 um. A good agreement between simulation and measurement was obtained and a reading distance up to 1 m is obtained with a transmission power of 3 dBm. The obtained results confirm the use of low cost printed tags for mass market applications.

A mycobacterial excretory-secretory protein fraction ESAS-7 purified by 50% ammonium sulphate precipitation followed by SDS-PAGE fractionation was evaluated by penicillinase enzyme linked immuno-sorbent assay (ELISA) for its sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. At a "cut off" serum dilution of 600, 38 (90%) of 42 sera from bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis cases, 15 (100%) of 15 sera from bacteriogically negative but anti tubercular therapy (ATT) responded cases, 3 (7%) of 43 sera from normal healthy subjects and 4 (8%) of 48 sera from non tuberculous disease control cases gave positive reaction for tubercular antibody to ESAS-7 antigen fraction containing predominantly 33-kDa protein with a sensitivity of 90% in bacteriologically confirmed cases and specificity of 92%. Further, this diagnostic assay using the ESAS-7 antigen is more sensitive requiring as little as one nanogram antigen per test compared to use of 100 nanogram EST-6 antigen reported earlier. Thus use of ESAS-7 antigen for antibody detection has good diagnostic potential with improved specificity in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Analysis of tubercular antibody, circulating free and immune complexed antigen (CIC-Ag) was done in confimed pulmonary tuberculosis sera by ELISA, using ES-31 antigen and affinity purified anti ES-31 antibody. Twenty three of 25 (92%) tuberculosis sera were positive for IgG antibody to ES-31 antigen. Using anti ES-31 antibody, free tubercular antigen could be detected in 20 of 25 (80%) cases whereas circulating immune complexed antigen (CIC-Ag) in 18 of 25 (72%) cases by sandwich ELISA. Of the two sera showing absence of antibody, one showed presence of free and CIC-Ag whereas the other showed the presence of free antigen. Thus antigen assay may be used as an adjunct tool for confirmation of pulmonary tuberculosis.

A 77-year-old Asian man with a past medical history of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension presented to the emergency department with complaints of weakness, fatigue, and shortness of breath for 2 weeks, symptoms that had worsened over the previous 3 to 4 days. The patient also complained of decreased appetite. He said he had had a nonproductive cough for 3 weeks, which had stopped 2 weeks earlier. He also had mild nausea and vomited once a day for 3 days. He had occasional mild abdominal pain, with his stomach becoming “hard and big.” The patient also complained of night sweating. He had no fever, no recent travel, no sick contacts, and no chest pain. He had lost 3 pounds in 2 weeks. He did not use alcohol or drugs but had a 40-pack-year smoking history; he had quit smoking 14 years earlier. In the 1960s, the patient stayed 10 years in a jungle jail in Asia. In the emergency department, the patient's blood pressure was 144/85 mm Hg; heart rate, 108 beats per minute; respiratory rate, 28 breaths per minute; temperature, 97°F; weight, 58 kg. His oxygen saturation was 97% on room air. He had decreased breath sounds with rales in both lung bases, as well as mild right upper quadrant tenderness and moderate distension with decreased bowel sounds. The patient had no jugular venous distention, wheezing, precordial murmur, gallop, rub, jaundice, rash, clubbing, cyanosis, or edema. Laboratory results revealed no leukocytosis, no left shift, and mild anemia. The erythrocyte sedimentation rate was elevated to 42 mm/h (reference range