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KMC facilitates mother baby attachment in low birth weight infants.

Background:Tobacco and alcohol use are serious health problems. Studies focusing on problems associated with tobacco and alcohol use in the elderly are limited.Aim:To find out the prevalence of tobacco and alcohol use among rural elderly population.Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted in the intensive field practice area of the Comprehensive Rural Health Services Project in Ballabgarh in Faridabad, Haryana, a rural field practice area of the Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. The sample was selected using stratified random cluster sampling. The participants were ≥60 years of age at the time of interview. Data on tobacco and alcohol use pattern of 1117 elderly were collected during the interview.Results:The prevalence of smoking was 71.8% in men (n=490) and 41.4% in women (n=497). Among men smokers, 41.5% were light smokers (≤5 beedis/day), 42.9% were moderate smokers (6–20 beedis/day) and 15.6% were heavy smokers (>20 beedis/day). Among women smokers, 71.8% were light smokers, 23.8% were moderate smokers and 4.4% were heavy smokers. Regular alcohol intake was seen in 16.3% of the men compared with 0.8% of the women.Conclusion:The finding of a high prevalence of smoking and alcohol consumption among men in this rural population of India is of serious concern and therefore needs remedial measures.

A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in an urban resettlement colony in South Delhi to study the prevalence of knee osteoarthritis in women aged ≥40 years and treatment seeking behavior of women suffering from osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis was diagnosed by using clinical criteria given by American College of Rheumatology for diagnosis of Idiopathic Osteoarthritis of knee joints. A total 260 women were interviewed out of which 123 (47.3%) women were found to be suffering from knee osteoarthritis. Prevalence of osteoarthritis found to be increased with age. Less than half of those with osteoarthritis underwent treatment. With this high prevalence of osteoarthritis, there is need to spread awareness about the disease, its prevention, and rehabilitation in the community.

The aim of this study was to determine whether the implementation of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) to low birth weight infants would improve physical growth, breastfeeding and its acceptability. A randomized controlled trial was performed over 16 months in which 110 neonates were randomized into a KMC group and a control group using a random number table. The KMC group was subjected to KMC for at least 6 h per day. The babies also received KMC after moving from the neonatal intensive care unit and at home. The control group received standard care (incubator or open care system). Weight, length and occipitofrontal circumference (OFC) were measured weekly for three months. The acceptability of KMC by mothers and nursing staff was assessed on day 7 after the start of KMC using a questionnaire incorporating the Likert scale. Breastfeeding rates were calculated based on history at end of three months. The mean gestational age was 35.48 ± 1.20 weeks in the KMC group and 35.04 ± 1.09 weeks in the control group (P > 0.05). KMC was initiated at a mean age of 1.72 ± 0.45 days and the duration of KMC was 9.74 ± 1.48 h/day. The mean birth weight was 1.69 ± 0.11 kg in the KMC group compared to 1.69 ± 0.12 kg in the control group (P > 0.05). The mean weight gain in gm/day in the KMC group was 21.92 ± 1.44 compared to 18.61 ± 1.28 in the control group (P < 0.05). The mean length gain in cm/week was 1.03 ± 0.5 in the KMC group compared to 0.74 ± 0.05 in the control group (P < 0.05). The mean OFC gain in cm/week was 0.59 ± 0.04 in the KMC group compared to 0.47 ± 0.03 in the control group (P < 0.05). The exclusive breast-feeding rate at end of three months was 88% in the KMC group compared to 72% in the control group (P < 0.05). KMC improved physical growth, breastfeeding rates and was well accepted by both mothers and nursing staff.

Traumatic abdominal wall hernia is a rare entity, and an uncommon type of abdominal wall hernia as far as the etiology is concerned. It is caused by blunt trauma and disrupts the fascial layers, but does not disrupt the elastic skin. In this study, we report the case of a 60-year-old female, diagnosed with traumatic abdominal wall hernia with delayed presentation. In this case, herniation of the bowels was present through the defect in the left iliac region. She was surgically well-managed. During the follow-up of 1 year, there was no recurrence. In the Western medical literature, only a few cases have been reported, especially with intra-abdominal injuries. Confusion still exists in the management of such a disease as to whether to treat the condition at an early or later stage.

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Managing the increasing traffic is a big problem all over the world. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) provides solution to these problems with the help of new technologies. ITS is an integrated system that implements a broad range of communication, control, vehicle sensing and electronics technologies to solve and manage the traffic problems. ITS is being used in the developed countries since past two decades, but it is still a new concept when developing countries like India, Brazil, China, South Africa etc. are concerned. In the present study we have studied four major parts of the ITS i.e., Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS), Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS), Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS), and Emergency Management System (EMS). Objective of the paper is to study various ITS architecture and model and review such models to get in-depth of their architecture. Hence architecture and developed models over the years of four major branches of ITS have been reviewed here to make a comparison analysis of different models that have been developed by the researchers in their studies. It will lead to the gaps in the knowledge which can be further studied. The paper highlights the conclusions extracted from the studies of different systems and also gives the future scope in the field of ITS to make it more user friendly and accessible.