Mother and child service coverage: reproductive and child health programme in Alwar district, Rajasthan state.

Present study was conducted to assess the child immunization coverage and availability of safe motherhood intervention services for expecting mothers under RCH programme in Alwar district. WHO-30 cluster sampling method was used and 26 rural and 4 urban clusters were surveyed. Fully immunized children were more in urban areas (82.1%) as compared to rural (45.1%) areas. The immunization coverage was more or less similar in both sexes. BCG and Measles coverage was also higher i.e. 89.3% and 85.7% in urban areas than 69.61%, and 52.2% in rural respectively. High drop out rate was found for DPT (25.3%) and OPV (23.2%) in rural areas as compare to urban (7.70/ each). Failure of immunization in rural areas was mainly due to unawareness of need for immunization (35.4%), mother too busy in 16.8%, place and time not known in 9.7%, place for immunization too far 8.8% and 7.1% each for unaware of need to return for subsequent doses, fear of side reactions and vaccinator absent. TT immunization coverage was mainly through Government source and two third of the mothers were immunized in both urban and rural areas. 71.4% of urban and 36.1% of the rural mothers received ANC >=3. However the iron folic acid supplementation was similar in urban and rural areas. Place of delivery was mainly hospital in urban areas (71.4%) and were home (61.7%) in rural areas. Hospital staff (Govt. or pvt.) conducted 82.1% of the deliveries in urban areas as compared to 58.5% in rural. The ANM/ Health staff (56.4%) and family members (27.0%) were main source of information for mother for the need of mother and child immunization.

Processing of maize germ oil cake into edible food grade meal and evaluation of its protein quality.

The commercial oil cake produced during expeller pressing of maize germ, was extracted with n-hexane and 80 percent ethanol followed by seiving to remove undesirable materials. In defatted maize germ oil cake (DMGOC): protein, starch, fat, crude fiber (CF) and ash were respectively 24.69, 36.55, 5.68, 7.56 and 3.90 percent and they decrease after processing except ash, which increased slightly. It contains better quality protein having only 3 percent zein and 47 percent albumin. Its amino acids like lysine and tryptophan and biological value (BV) were higher than that of whole maize grain, and was comparable with that of the amino acid requirement of preschool children and casein diets both. Its digestible energy (DE) was lower compared with whole maize grain as well as the casein diets. After processing albumin, globulin and zein decreased whereas glutelin and the residual fraction increased. Not much differences were observed in chemical composition and different amino acids, in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD), true digestibility (TD), BV and DE improved after processing.

Carcinoid tumor of the gallbladder: report of a case.

We report herein the rare case of a 40-year-old woman with a 10-year history of dull abdominal pain, in whom a carcinoid tumor of the gallbladder was confirmed by postoperative histological findings. A review of the world literature revealed that only 22 other such cases have been documented, all of which were diagnosed by incidental findings at the time of surgery or at post mortem. Although these patients may present with liver metastasis, rarely do they manifest with features of a carcinoid syndrome. The rarity of this entity prompted us to present our patient's case report, followed by a brief review of the literature on the previous 22 cases.

Protein quality evaluation of sprouted maize.

Protein, lysine, tryptophan, crude fibre (CF) and neutral detergent fibre (NDF) of sprouted, normal and hard endosperm opaque-2 (QPM) kernels increased, whereas in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) decreased substantially up to five days of germination. Following the removal of radicles alone or both radicles and plumules from sprouted kernels, IVPD improved at all the stages of germination. However, the contents of lysine and tryptophan were not affected significantly. For some stages of germination, these amino acids decreased slightly. In sprouted normal kernels, IVPD was higher whereas protein, lysine and tryptophan content was lower than that of sprouted QPM kernels respectively at all the stages of germination. In four days old sprouted normal kernels, after the removal of both radicles and plumules biological value (BV), net protein utilization (NPU) and utilizable protein (UP) increased over non-sprouted kernels whereas true digestibility (TD) reach at par with non-sprouted kernels.

Influence of endosperm texture on milling, chemical composition and nutritive quality in maize.

Three maize varieties namely Vijay, SO/SN composite and Shakti, which differ in their nutritional quality and endosperm texture were processed to prepare semolina (sooji) and process-flour. The nutritional quality of these products was determined and compared with whole kernel flour of the respective variety. Distinct differences in milling and chemical composition of three varieties were recorded. In quality evaluation tests lysine and tryptophan content, biological value and true digestibility were better in semolina and process-flour. Moreover, decrease in acid value in semolina and process-flour compared with whole maize flour recorded in all the varieties suggested improvement in shelf-life.