One of the major limitations of flexible sensors is the loss of conductivity upon multiple stretching and bending cycles. Conducting fillers with two different geometries, carbon black and carbon ...nanotubes, were introduced in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for physical insights into the structure formation of nanofillers by the application of periodic tensile stress. The loading of the nanofillers was selected beyond the percolation threshold to determine the cyclic stability of the resulting network channels. The surface chemistry of carbon nanotubes has been varied to understand the interfacial interactions at the molecular length scale. The combination of in situ stretching, annealing, and vis-à-vis conductometry of nanocomposite films with synchrotron-based ultra-small angle X-ray scattering experiments enables us to highlight the importance of the fractal dimensions of nanofillers for the molecular level interactions. The irreversible formation of nanofiller network geometries under cyclic stress and annealing was found to be responsible for the electrical properties of a flexible conducting film.
It is necessary to understand the way women think about their health. There is a "culture of silence" among women regarding urinary incontinence (UI). Physiotherapy is proven effective mode of ...therapy in case of UI.
This study aimed to explore the attitude of the women toward UI, to understand the related sociocultural factors and health-seeking behavior, and to ascertain the challenges encountered in community-based physiotherapy interventions.
A qualitative study was conducted among women who refused to participate in a physiotherapy intervention for UI in the rural community of Gujarat, India. Fourteen in-depth key informant interviews were conducted using an interview guide. The responses were noted and compiled into a composite interview script. Interviews were not recorded due to nonavailability of consent. Interviews were reviewed by investigators and content analysis was carried out. Key themes were identified after multiple iterations.
Most of the women were unaware of the UI and believed that it may be due to their gender or due to aging. Physiotherapy interventions were disregarded due to various reasons such as shy nature, lack of priority and privacy, dependency, self-neglect, and influence of social and cultural norms.
Cultural and social systems were more important determinants of health seeking than health systems themselves particularly when sensitive issue such as UI in women of rural Western India was concerned.
Background: The prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus has been on the rise. With the dramatic increase in the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and inactivity amongst the population, it's ...becoming a common problem affecting antenatal women and their offspring. Subjects and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was carried out involving antenatal women between 24-28 weeks of gestation at a tertiary care centre in a rural part of Gujarat. Patients were screened using the Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group India (DIPSI) guidelines. Analysis was carried out using Chi-square and ANOVA test. Results: Patients having PG2BS ≥140 mg/dl were diagnosed as having Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), while those having PG2BS values between 120-139 mg/dl were diagnosed as having Gestational Glucose Intolerance (GGI). Out of the 300 patients screened, we found an overall prevalence of 52 (17.33%) having GDM and 65 (21.67%) having GGI. Most patients belonged to the age bracket of 21-30 years across all groups. The prevalence of GDM in rural antenatal women was 23 (44.2%) and in semi-urban antenatal women was 25 (48.1%) while GGI in the rural antenatal women was 45 (69.2%) followed by semi-urban antenatal women 19 (29.2). We found that Occupation, Residence, Lifestyle, Socio-Economic Class, Family history of Diabetes Mellitus, Body Mass Index (BMI) were all statistically significant whereas Antenatal Complications and Perinatal outcomes weren't. Conclusion: With such a high prevalence of GGI, almost equivalent to GDM, it is important to identify patients having GGI and monitor them to prevent progression to GDM by starting an appropriate treatment modality.
Context: Adolescent well-being is a priority area for health-care interventions in the 21st century. Yoga-nidra is an ancient Indian method of enabling individuals to attain a positive state of deep ...physical, mental, and emotional relaxation. The practice produces a state of simultaneous relaxation and detachment resulting in inner awareness and release of stress on all planes of one's being. Aim: This mixed method study was carried out in adolescent students aged 13-15 years with an aim to assess effects of Yoga-nidra on various dimensions of well-being. Materials and Methods: Thirty-six students received Yoga-nidra sessions 30 min daily for 3 days in a week for 1 month. Primary outcome measures were happiness, perceived stress, overall quality of life, and psychological general well-being. These and other experiential dimensions of well-being comprising of enthusiasm, alertness, quietude, clarity of thought, control over anger, self-confidence, and self-awareness were evaluated before and after intervention. Qualitative observations were recorded from participants, their teachers, and parents. Results of quantitative and qualitative methods were analyzed and compared. Results: Yoga-nidra intervention resulted in significant improvement in all primary outcome measures. Participants reported significant improvement in the feelings of happiness, enthusiasm, quietude, being more inspired and alert, active, having clarity of thought, control over anger, and self-confidence at the end of the study period. Mixed method design of the study provided cross-validation and convergence of results obtained from quantitative and qualitative assessment tools. Conclusion: Yoga-nidra is beneficial in improving multiple dimensions of adolescent well-being.
In this work, the dynamics of a clutch damper system with multiple nonlinearities modeled as a single degree freedom system is investigated numerically. The experimentally obtained torque ...displacement diagram shows the presence of preload, hysteresis and piecewise nonlinearities in the system. All the above said nonlinearities are discontinuous in nature and special solution techniques are required to solve the same. In this paper, the discontinuous functions are replaced by smooth functions to avoid the computational difficulties. The dynamics is investigated by plotting bifurcation diagrams with excitation frequency as the parameter. In the presence of multiple nonlinearities, it is found that the system exhibits complex dynamics in the form of periodic, quasiperiodic and chaotic solutions for different parameter values. It is found that the addition of mean load changes the symmetry associated with the system. The study provides better understanding on the dynamics of the system which is essential for a safe design.
Hydrophobins are a class of small cysteine rich surface active proteins produced exclusively by filamentous fungi. It forms a nano layer in the cell-water interface, thereby protecting the emerging ...fungal hyphae from surrounding water. Even though hydrophobins have similar functions in fungi, they share less sequence similarity. In the current study, we made a comparative study of the hydrophobin produced by the mushroom Pleurotus floridanus (PfH). Mushroom P. floridanus was cultured in PD broth. The hydrophobin was purified by foam fractionation and characterized in terms of molecular weight, solubility and glycosylation. In the RP-HPLC analysis, the hydrophobin eluted at a retention time of 45.56 min. The molecular weight of the PfH was found to be 13.52 kDa by MALDI-TOF MS and the LC-MS/MS showed no similar sequence in MASCOT database. The hydrophobin gene of P. floridanus was amplified using custom-designed primers and the BLAST analysis showed 80% sequence similarity with the Vmh2-1 gene of Pleurotus ostreatus. The sequence was translated into protein using ExPASy, secondary and tertiary structure predictions were carried out using Jpred4 and Phyre2. The tertiary structure showed 91.5% similarity with the HYD1 hydrophobin of Schizophyllum commune. A comparative study of PfH with Vmh2-1 and HYD1 was performed using bioinformatics tools. Hydrophobic cluster analysis revealed that three of these proteins have uniformity in terms of amphiphilic and non-amphiphilic α-helices, whereas PfH has a unique proline clustering. Physicochemical analysis by ProtParam revealed that PfH shares similar properties with HYD1 and Vmh2-1, which can be correlated with its function.
•A Class 1 hydrophobin (PfH) was isolated from edible mushroom Pleurotus floridanus and characterized.•PfH has a molecular weight of 13.52 kDa and found to be glycosylated.•The predicted secondary structure of hydrophobin has 40% β sheets.•Physico-chemical characterization showed that PfH has a positive GRAVY value.•Hydrophobic cluster analysis revealed that PfH has a unique proline clustering and proline content.
Objectives: The study is aimed at assessing the effects of correction of iron deficiency anaemia on health related quality of life on patients treated with parenteral iron, and compares the effects ...of treatment with intravenous iron and placebo in a randomized controlled trial. Methods: Questionnaire based survey using (SF-8 short form) on health related quality of life in the elderly patients with iron deficiency anaemia (total 51, 2:1 randomised, blinded, control study) was carried out. Patients with severe cognitive or physical impairment were excluded. Observations were tested for significance level. Results: There was significant improvement in the domains of general health, bodily pain, vitality, social functioning, emotional role and overall improvement in physical and mental health as reflected by PCS and MCS scores. The domains of SF-8 with physical functioning, physical role, and mental health improvement were less impressive at 4 weeks as compared to the other five parameters of SF-8. There was no statistically significant difference in SF-8 items (HRQoL) before and after treatment with placebo. Conclusion: Elderly patients with iron deficiency anaemia have reduced HRQoL and parenteral iron treatment resulted in rapid improvements in HRQoL assessed at 4 weeks, significantly greater than placebo, across most of the domains.
Electron mean free paths are calculated as functions of incident energy for Ti, TiC, TiN and TiO2 in solid. Microscopic calculations are done in each case with the atomic-molecular scattering models.
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