Κυριακή 13 Νοεμβρίου 2016

Awareness of pubertal changes and reproductive health in adolescent girls: a comparative study

2016-11-13T23-38-57Z
Source: International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health
Rakhi Jain, Puneet Anand.
Background: Adolescent period is characterized by physical, psychological and behavioural changes and girls can show different reactions to these changes. Proper information can help them in handling these changes without any stress. Tribal females are a vulnerable population and lack health care facilities. Limited data is available on awareness of pubertal changes and reproductive health among tribal adolescent girls. Aims of the study were to study and compare the level of awareness about pubertal changes and reproductive health between tribal and urban adolescent girls. Methods: The study population consisted of 200 adolescent girls between 10-19 years age 100 each, from urban and tribal setting. A predesigned questionnaire, which consisted of questions designed to evaluate the awareness about pubertal changes and reproductive health was used for data collection. Data was analysed using SPSS software, student t test, Chi- square test and co-relation test. Results: Mean age of the study population was 13.76±1.2 years. Mean awareness of urban adolescent girls about pubertal changes and reproductive health was significantly greater than tribal adolescent girls. Awareness was more in older age and more literate adolescent girls. Conclusions: Information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns have to be strengthened to increase awareness on menstrual hygiene practices and sexually transmitted diseases among tribal adolescent girls as these are a vulnerable group.


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Role of staging laparoscopy to evaluate feasibility of performing optimal cytoreductive surgery in epithelial ovarian cancers

2016-11-13T23-03-50Z
Source: International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences
Sathyanarayanan M. Shivkumaran, Ganesh S. Mandakulutur, Keerthi R. Banavara.
Background: The main stay of treatment for epithelial ovarian cancers is surgical cytoreduction. CT scan and staging laparotomy are methods used to assess feasibility to carry out optimal cytoreduction. We evaluated the role of staging laparoscopy in assessing operability for optimal cytoreduction as well as avoidance of unnecessary laparotomies. Methods: Between September 2014-2016, 23 patients of epithelial ovarian cancer underwent staging laparoscopy as part of evaluation method to check feasibility to carry out optimal cytoreductive surgery. The findings were correlated with clinical findings as well as CT scan findings. The impact of laparoscopy to predict operability was studied as well as its use to avoid unnecessary laparotomies. Results: Laparoscopy could correctly evaluate the nature of abdominal mass in 91.3% patients. It picked up omental and peritoneal deposits in 87% and 95.7% patients respectively as compared to 60.9% and 39% picked up on CT scan. More importantly laparoscopy could diagnose mesenteric and small bowel deposits in 34.8% of patients which were never reported on CT scan. The overall impact was reduction in unnecessary laparotomies. Conclusions: Laparoscopic evaluation is a useful adjunct prior to performing a formal laparotomy in epithelial ovarian cancer cytoreductive surgery.


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Microbial genome-wide association studies: lessons from human GWAS

With the increasing availability of microbial whole genomes, researchers are beginning to carry out genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in bacteria, viruses and protozoa. In this Review, the authors discuss the specific challenges and considerations associated with the application of GWAS methods to microorganisms and consider the future of microbial GWAS in the light of lessons learned from human studies.

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Making sense of genomic islands of differentiation in light of speciation

To characterize the genetic underpinnings of speciation, genome scans can identify genomic regions that differ between divergent populations of wild organisms. In this Review, Wolf and Ellegren describe the methodological details of these approaches and how genomic islands of differentiation should be interpreted cautiously in the search for 'speciation genes'. They also discuss methodological best practice that takes into consideration genomic differentiation occurring through speciation-independent evolutionary processes.

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Dissecting the genetics of complex traits using summary association statistics

Investigating the genetic basis of complex traits and diseases using individual-level genetic data from genome-wide association studies is often hampered by privacy concerns and logistical considerations. Here, the authors review recent statistical methods that leverage summary association data, which are widely available and can circumvent these issues.

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Potassium channels in the heart: structure, function and regulation

Abstract

This paper is the outcome of the fourth UC Davis Systems Approach to Understanding Cardiac Excitation–Contraction Coupling and Arrhythmias Symposium, a biannual event that aims to bring together leading experts in subfields of cardiovascular biomedicine to focus on topics of importance to the field. The theme of the 2016 symposium was 'K+ Channels and Regulation'. Experts in the field contributed their experimental and mathematical modelling perspectives and discussed emerging questions, controversies and challenges on the topic of cardiac K+ channels. This paper summarizes the topics of formal presentations and informal discussions from the symposium on the structural basis of voltage-gated K+ channel function, as well as the mechanisms involved in regulation of K+ channel gating, expression and membrane localization. Given the critical role for K+ channels in determining the rate of cardiac repolarization, it is hardly surprising that essentially every aspect of K+ channel function is exquisitely regulated in cardiac myocytes. This regulation is complex and highly interrelated to other aspects of myocardial function. K+ channel regulatory mechanisms alter, and are altered by, physiological challenges, pathophysiological conditions, and pharmacological agents. An accompanying paper focuses on the integrative role of K+ channels in cardiac electrophysiology, i.e. how K+ currents shape the cardiac action potential, and how their dysfunction can lead to arrhythmias, and discusses K+ channel-based therapeutics. A fundamental understanding of K+ channel regulatory mechanisms and disease processes is fundamental to reveal new targets for human therapy.



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Texas dispatchers discuss challenges, rewards of career

By Silvio Panta

Odessa American
ODESSA, Texas — Dispatchers work two 12-hour shifts that cover both day and night, and are, in a sense, the real first responders who come across potentially life-and-death situations by answering 9-1-1 calls made by desperate people caught in an unforeseen crisis.

Michele Racca, a dispatcher who is a training coordinator, said she has answered calls in her 15 years "on the floor" that can raise anyone's blood pressure and heighten stress levels.

One such 9-1-1 call years ago stood out as one that didn't end well.

The caller needed help with a 6-week-old girl who was suffering from what appeared to be a sudden infant death syndrome-related ailment while cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions were being given. The infant's siblings were heard crying in the background and when the caller asked what to do with the "little ones," Racca suggested they pray together, she said.

The infant died, Racca said.

Another call involved someone who was in a head-on collision "somewhere in the edge of the county" and lying in the front seat of a vehicle was an 8-year-old child who needed help, which arrived when firefighters pulled up in time, Racca said.

"I had to stay on the line for quite a long time," Racca recalled.

Racca and another longtime dispatcher shared their memories about the job they've come to love in spite of the harrowing calls they and their colleagues have encountered in their efforts to help someone in an emergency.

Ensconced on the third-floor in a Fourth Street office building in downtown Odessa, Racca, works alongside with about four or five other co-dispatchers in a given shift. Despite being short-staffed all dispatchers on staff manage to field as many as an estimated 700 calls per day during those two shifts, she said.

"You have to have a love for this job," said Racca, who added that anyone who can relate to people in a helpful way, and gracefully withstand the amount of stress that can come along with fielding 9-1-1 calls, can become a dispatcher.

"There has to be an innate desire, there has to be a compassion (for people) and a love to really excel at this job," Racca said.

Fellow dispatcher Christina Davis, a quality assurance manager, agrees.

Davis, a lifelong Odessa resident who has been a dispatcher for almost 11 years, said that while dispatching can be stressful, there's never a dull moment.

Racca cited statistics that showed the national average for dispatchers to continue working in the field is five years. Racca said she also knew of a study that tells of how 9-1-1 dispatchers can show the same symptoms for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome "as those who've been diagnosed with PTSD."

Usually, a prospective candidate for a dispatching slot can tell whether he or she is cut out for the job during training. One such candidate withdrew and told his colleagues "kudos to you guys, but this is not for me," Racca said.

Davis explained that a public safety job like dispatching can be taxing and that no work shift ever is like the one before.

"No day is the same, every single day is different," Davis said. "You can never come in and have the same day twice."

The two work shifts are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., and dispatchers work "four days on, and four days off," Davis said. Dispatching applicants are tested on their typing skills and on how well they can multi-task. Test results can come in a couple of weeks, or a couple of months, "depending on your history," Davis said.

Applicants can have a high school diploma, or GED, and have no criminal history, Davis said.

"You have to pass a background check and a finger print check," she said.

There are currently 17 full-time dispatchers on staff with three going through training. Some part-time workers consist of Odessa Fire/Rescue firefighters and Odessa Police Department officers who work on their days off, Davis said.

The busiest days for dispatchers are the Fourth of July, New Year's Eve and Halloween, but the biggest 9-1-1 call generator can be the annual Permian and Odessa High football game, Davis said. One challenge to dispatching are the emergency calls made by people using cell phones, which can make it hard for a dispatcher to pinpoint a location, especially when they're made in outlying areas like in Gardendale and can potentially delay response times, Davis said.

Another challenge that can come up is when the caller does not speak English, but Davis explained that AT&T is contracted to provide interpreters.

"It's certainly a relief when you get off a line," she said. "It's very fulfilling to give back to the community in a very helpful way."

Copyright 2016 the Odessa American



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Hello - Adele (Reggae Cover)

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Hello - Adele (Reggae Cover)

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Hello - Adele (Reggae Cover)

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Hello - Adele (Reggae Cover)

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Fla. first responders honored for heroic actions

By Alexi C. Cardona
Naples Daily News

NAPLES, Fla. — One of the scariest calls for a first responder is a woman going into labor.

Things don't always go right, like when firefighter Erin Gill of the Greater Naples Fire-Rescue District and her team responded to a late-term miscarriage in July.

"That was a disturbing call," Gill said. "It was one of the tougher calls we've had as a crew."

When Gill got another call about a woman going into labor in Golden Gate the same day, she and her crew felt uneasy.

But what are emergency responders to do when they arrive at a home and find a woman lying on the driveway, her baby already crowning?

"You catch the baby," Gill said.

Gill and about a dozen other Collier County first responders were honored Thursday for their work in the community by the Naples chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Collier County EMS paramedic Jose Gomez, Greater Naples Fire Lt. Jake Beckman, firefighter Dennis DiSarro and engineers Acey Edgemon Jr. and Justin Beasley also were awarded the Emergency Medical Services Commendation Medal for taking care of the baby and mother during the delivery.

"Guys can get a little nervous about helping deliver, but their training kicks in," Gill said. "I'm blessed to work with the most competent, compassionate, dependable guys around."

The men and women honored Thursday exhibited courage and tenacity in their work by pulling people from burning cars, diving into canals to save someone in a car crash and helping arrest a man accused of killing two law enforcement officers in 1976.

"I hear these stories, and I just can't believe what you all do," said Michael Garey, president of the local Sons of the American Revolution.

And those honored indeed had gripping stories.

Gardy Bradley, a Collier County emergency medical technician, and his girlfriend, Emily Bronzini, were driving to attend a wedding in Connecticut in September when they noticed a car that had lost control on an interstate highway, crashed into some trees and caught fire.

"Before leaving for Connecticut, Gardy wanted to stop to buy a fire extinguisher," Bronzini said. "I was a little annoyed, but we went and got it. When we saw the burning car all those hours later, he yelled to me to get the fire extinguisher, and I thought, 'Of course we have one.' "

Bradley and a group of bystanders pulled the unconscious driver from the car just before the car exploded.

"They were all real heroes," Bronzini said. "They were all so brave. I'm grateful for the people who do this for a living because they're the reasons why a lot of people get to live."

Bradley was awarded the Medal for Heroism.

Also honored at the award ceremony were:

Florida Highway Patrol Cpl. John Schultz for his work as a traffic homicide investigator and numerous accomplishments, including finding Walter Norman Rhodes, a fugitive accused of killing an FHP trooper and a Canadian constable in a rest area off Interstate 95 near Pompano Beach in February 1976.

Collier County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Shannon Patton and Cpl. Steven Thompson for finding and arresting a man who shot at another man and became hostile toward the deputies, taking a fighting stance and reaching in his waistband for a weapon.

Collier Sheriff's Office Cpl. Meagan Kitchenhoff for jumping into a canal at Pine Ridge and Airport-Pulling roads to save a man whose car landed upside-down in the canal after a vehicle crash.

Collier Sheriff's Office Sgt. Leslie Weidenhammer for her work to help and understand people suffering from mental illness.

Collier Sheriff's Office Cpl. Brandt Blank for extracting the victims of a serious three-vehicle crash on State Road 82, securing the scene and giving instructions to bystanders to help those who were hurt.

Greater Naples Fire-Rescue District Lt. Inspector John Bigica for his dedication as a fire inspector and his work with the district's Investigative Section/Fire & Life Safety Branch.

Copyright 2016 the Naples Daily News



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