Rural buyers' perception about mosquito repellants

Mosquito repellants prevent mosquito bites and prevention of "man-mosquito contact" is a critical factor in transmission and spread of any disease through mosquitoes particularly in rural area. There has been a long standing 'bias' towards rural buyers. The rural markets are considered rigid in the nature but it is not the case in real sense. Marketing to rural buyers is not only a challenge to the marketers but to the manufacturers, communicators, national planners and economists as well. That is why it has been necessary to understand the various aspects of selected rural areas and consumption pattern for such a fast growing market i.e. mosquito repellants and rural buyers’ perception towards such urban products. The present paper aims to find out the factors influencing the purchase decisions of rural buyers for mosquito repellants and to study the perceptions of present and potential rural buyers' of selected mosquito repellant brands.mosquito, repellent, malaria, rural market, buyers

Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Beyond Obesity

Sleep disorders are of growing concern and are a major public health problem. The obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common among different sleep-related breathing disorders (SRBDs). Obesity is a known associated risk factor for the OSA but is not limited to them. OSA is also recognized in nonobese population. The description of OSA in non obese patients in the literature is sparse. The clinical presentation is similar as in obese but has few differences as far as pathophysiology and polysomnographic features are concerned. The severity of OSA in nonobese has less severe manifestations thus requires early recognition and different treatment strategy to prevent mismanagement of these patients

Financing the Future of Asia: Innovations in Sustainable Finance

Around the globe, a wave of financial innovation that seeks to create social and environmental benefits while producing attractive returns is shaping the field of sustainable finance.From investments in publicly listed corporations based on environmental, social, and governance factors, to bonds issued to fund climate and environmental improvements; from micro-credit to small retailers through innovative credit assessments, to parametric insurance products improving the disaster resilience of countries, the world of sustainable finance is growing and becoming increasingly diverse.In this report, we take a closer look at these innovations and more, highlighting how they are working to mobilize private-sector capital at scale to address social and environmental challenges. We also explore recent developments and potential opportunities in Asia's four largest economies: China, India, Japan, and Indonesia

Delta Descriptors: Change-Based Place Representation for Robust Visual Localization

Visual place recognition is challenging because there are so many factors that can cause the appearance of a place to change, from day-night cycles to seasonal change to atmospheric conditions. In recent years a large range of approaches have been developed to address this challenge including deep-learnt image descriptors, domain translation, and sequential filtering, all with shortcomings including generality and velocity-sensitivity. In this paper we propose a novel descriptor derived from tracking changes in any learned global descriptor over time, dubbed Delta Descriptors. Delta Descriptors mitigate the offsets induced in the original descriptor matching space in an unsupervised manner by considering temporal differences across places observed along a route. Like all other approaches, Delta Descriptors have a shortcoming - volatility on a frame to frame basis - which can be overcome by combining them with sequential filtering methods. Using two benchmark datasets, we first demonstrate the high performance of Delta Descriptors in isolation, before showing new state-of-the-art performance when combined with sequence-based matching. We also present results demonstrating the approach working with four different underlying descriptor types, and two other beneficial properties of Delta Descriptors in comparison to existing techniques: their increased inherent robustness to variations in camera motion and a reduced rate of performance degradation as dimensional reduction is applied. Source code is made available at https://github.com/oravus/DeltaDescriptors.Comment: 8 pages and 7 figures. Published in 2020 IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L

Clinical profile and factors associated with microalbuminuria in type 1 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the pattern of clinical presentation and factor associated with microalbuminuria.Methods: Urinary albumin excretion of children and adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus attending diabetic clinic of Katihar medical college hospital over a period of one year. Collected blood and urine samples were analysed for glycated haemoglobin, cholesterol, triglycerides, and for 12 hour urinary albumin concentration. Blood pressures were recorded and clinical data collected.Results: During the study period 215 patients were diagnosed with type1 DM. Out of 215, fourty-three patients (20%) had persistent microalbuminuria. Factor associated with microalbuminuria in diabetic patients include duration of diabetes mellitus, higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels.Conclusion: Type 1 DM is treatable and testing is acceptable and accessible to the patients. As microalbuminuria is an early microvascular complications, it is highly recommended to screen all diabetic patients for the incidence of microalbuminuria and modifiable risk factors like dyslipidemia at the onset and then yearly assessment. Efforts need to be intensified in education of health workers and population at large for quick presentation and prompt diagnosis in order to predict overt diabetic nephropathy and also to prevent its progression.

The electronic immediate discharge document: experience from the South West of Scotland

Background Communication and transfer of information between healthcare professionals are essential to a seamless healthcare process, and are vital for ensuring that there is smooth transition of care for patients. Throughout the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland, there is a wide variability in the quality and quantity of information provided in the immediate discharge document (IDD). Aims To analyse general practitioner (GP) attitudes and responses on the quality and efficacy of an electronic IDD (e-IDD). Setting All GPs in Dumfries and Galloway. Methods GPs communicating electronically with the hospital were sent a survey questionnaire at the end of an 18-month pilot.An amended questionnaire surveying potential interest was sent to the remaining GPs in the region. Results The overall response rate was 70%. Eightyone percent of practices connected received the e-IDD regularly, but the majority still used it in conjunction with its postal equivalent. Seventy percent complained of inadequacies in content relating to medication and follow-up information. Eighty percent agreed that it was faster and 68% felt significant cost savings could be made. Eighty-eight percent wanted a multidisciplinary input. Concerns were raised about funding, need for adequate training and back-up systems. Ninety-six percent were optimistic that in future other forms of clinical communications could be sent electronically. Conclusion Discharge content is more important than delivery method. Emphasis should be placed on ensuring standards are met on the quality and quantity of current e-discharge documents. Further clarification is required on patient confidentiality issues and legal validity of electronic patient records. E-health is to play a larger and ever-increasing role in the NHS in Scotland

Kinase profiling of liposarcomas using RNAi and drug screening assays identified druggable targets.

BackgroundLiposarcoma, the most common soft tissue tumor, is understudied cancer, and limited progress has been made in the treatment of metastatic disease. The Achilles heel of cancer often is their kinases that are excellent therapeutic targets. However, very limited knowledge exists of therapeutic critical kinase targets in liposarcoma that could be potentially used in disease management.MethodsLarge RNAi and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor screens were performed against the proliferative capacity of liposarcoma cell lines of different subtypes. Each small molecule inhibitor was either FDA approved or in a clinical trial.ResultsScreening assays identified several previously unrecognized targets including PTK2 and KIT in liposarcoma. We also observed that ponatinib, multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was the most effective drug with anti-growth effects against all cell lines. In vitro assays showed that ponatinib inhibited the clonogenic proliferation of liposarcoma, and this anti-growth effect was associated with apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase as well as a decrease in the KIT signaling pathway. In addition, ponatinib inhibited in vivo growth of liposarcoma in a xenograft model.ConclusionsTwo large-scale kinase screenings identified novel liposarcoma targets and a FDA-approved inhibitor, ponatinib with clear anti-liposarcoma activity highlighting its potential therapy for treatment of this deadly tumor