Objective This review examined prenatal care provided to incarcerated women to identify areas where improvement is needed, and examined current legislative gaps such that they can be addressed to ensure uniform templates of care be instituted at women’s prisons. Content Data were compiled from 2000-2021 citations in PubMed and Google Scholar using the keywords: prison AND prenatal care AND pregnancy. Summary and Outlook Although the right to health care of inmates is protected under the Eight Amendment to the United States Constitution, the literature suggests that prenatal care of incarcerated individuals is variable and would benefit from uniform federal standards. Inconsistency in reporting requirements has created a scarcity of data for this population, making standardization of care difficult. Although incarceration may result in improved access to care that women may not have had in their community, issues of shackling, inadequate prenatal diet, lack of access to comprehensive mental health management, and poor availability of opioid use disorder (OUD) management such as Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT) amd Opioid Treatment Programs (OTP), history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are just a few areas that must be focused on in prenatal care. After birth, mother-baby units (MBU) to enhance maternal-fetal bonding also should be a prison standard. In addition to implementing templates of care specifically directed to this subgroup of women, standardized state and federal legislation are recommended to ensure that uniform standards of prenatal care are enforced and also to encourage the reporting of data regarding pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in correctional facilities.

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Forensic analysis of DNA from non-human bones can be important in investigating a variety of forensic cases. However, decomposed bone is difficult to process for isolating DNA. In this study, a previously established enzymatic method was utilized to process bone samples that simulate decomposed specimens. Our results demonstrated that this enzymatic processing method is effective for removing decomposed soft tissues and outer surface materials such as mineralized bone connective tissue of bone fragment samples. Our data suggested that this method can be used in the initial sample preparation for cleaning the outer surface of decomposed non-human skeletal fragments. This study introduced an alternative method for processing decomposed non-human bone evidence prior to DNA isolation. Such a method can potentially be used to process various samples of different sizes and conditions for the investigation of a wide variety of criminal cases involving animals.

Introduction: Cataract is the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide. It is caused by the degeneration and opacification of the lens fibres. Phacoemulsification is the current treatment modality available for cataract. However, there is a possibility of an increase in the anterior chamber depth after phacoemulsification. This occurs as a result of the removal of the bulky lens matter and implantation of a thin intraocular lens, thereby reducing the intraocular pressure. Aim: To compare the preoperative and postoperative Intraocular Pressure (IOP) changes and the factors associated with intraocular pressure changes among patients who underwent phacoemulsification in a Tertiary Care Centre in Kerala. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out among 610 patients, who underwent phacoemulsification surgery from January 1st, 2017 to December 31st, 2017. Using a checklist, the following data such as age, sex, Date of Surgery, Last recorded preoperative intraocular pressure of both eyes, First recorded Postoperative intraocular pressure of both eyes any time after 3 months, Axial length, Grade of cataract and comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, glaucoma and Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) was obtained from the hospital Information System. Data collected was entered into an MS Excel and was analysed using SPSS version 20. Frequency and percentages were calculated and association assessed using Chi-square test. Paired t-test was applied to find the mean changes in the IOP levels and p-value was ≤0.05, thus significant. Results: It was observed that there was a mean reduction of 7.907 mmHg in ocular hypertensives when compared to ocular normotensives following phacoemulsification. This finding was found to be statistically significant (p-value <0.001). There was association between grade of cataract and change in IOP which was significant with a p-value of 0.031. Conclusion: Phacoemulsification is the treatment of choice in patients with cataract. In the study, it was found that ocular hypertensives who underwent phacoemulsification had a significant drop in intraocular pressure post-surgery. Phacoemulsification can be employed in patients who have both ocular hypertension and cataract. This procedure can improve vision and in addition to having a positive effect on IOP reduction.