Role of Alexithymia in Predicting Self-Efficacy in Academic Students of a North Indian Institution: A Cross Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Alexithymia is a cognitive-affective style and a personality construct that is associated with various physical and psychological disorders. It refers to a personality trait associated with difficulties with identifying or describing feelings, mental imaging and fantasy, and external cognitive orientation AIM: To access the problem of alexithymia among the Academic (Dental and Ayurvedic) students of an Institution in North India. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A questionnaire based cross-sectional survey was carried out among the medical students of D.J. Group of Institutions, Modinagar, Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board, Modinagar and informed consent was obtained from all the study participants prior to the study. RESULTS: The questionnaire based study was carried out among 252 medical students of D.J. Group of Institutions, Modinagar, Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Out of which 113 students were of Ayurveda and 139 were dental students. The inter group comparison of respondents according to course of study in which majority of the Ayurveda students were having significant result for the alexithymia problem. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that alexithymia plays significant role in decreasing self-efficacy in academic students. As alexithymia is high in college students and affects self-regulation, goal orientation, and academic function, we suggest that mental physicians routinely evaluate medical college students for alexithymia

Urinary calcium to creatinine ratio to predict preeclampsia and use of calcium supplementation to prevent preeclampsia

Background: Incidence of preeclampsia is around 5-10% of all pregnancies, and in developing countries around 4-18%. There is hypercalciuria during normal pregnancy, while pre-eclampsia is associated with hypocalciuria and low urinary calcium to creatinine ratio. Low calcium intake has been hypothesized to cause increase in blood pressure. The present study was carried out to investigate significance of urinary CCR in prediction of preeclampsia & role of calcium supplementation in reducing preeclampsia.Methods: 100 pregnant patients were divided into two groups, 50 cases and 50 controls. A spot urine sample was collected for estimation of CCR at around gestational age of 20-24 weeks. Cases were given 2 gm of calcium supplementation. Controls were 1 gm calcium .Then at each visit both the groups, were evaluated for symptoms of preeclampsia. Urinary calcium to creatinine ratio was calculated and those with ratio 0.04 were considered test negative.Results: The test (urinary CCR 0.04) in 84 patients and in those only 5 developed pre eclampsia. Urinary CCR had sensitivity of 63.63%, specificity of 94.87%. Out of 50 cases, only 3 developed preeclampsia. Out 0f 50 controls, 11 developed preeclampsia.Conclusions: Urinary CCR between 20-24wks of gestation will be an effective screening method for impending pre-eclampsia. Calcium supplementation (2gms/day) can help in prevention of preeclampsia

Clinicosociodemographic profile of ruptured ectopic pregnancies at a tertiary care centre

Background: Rupture of an ectopic pregnancy remains the most dreaded complication of a pregnancy related event and is the commonest cause of maternal mortality in the first trimester of pregnancy. In the developing countries, the maternal death rate among patients admitted with ectopic pregnancy was found to be as high as one in ten. In addition to high risk for mortality, rupture of an ectopic pregnancy could affect future fertility of a woman. The objectives of this study are to analyse the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and find out the incidence rate and risk factors associated with ruptured ectopic pregnancies in a tertiary care institution.Methods: This is a retrospective study and was conducted over a period of one year from September 2015 to September 2016 in Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, India. It is a tertiary care centre getting referrals not only from nearby cities and hospitals but also from major cities of neighbour states. During this time frame a total of 2601 deliveries have taken place and 57 cases of ruptured ectopic pregnancies were reported. Data were collected in a preconceived format.Results: Total numbers of vaginal deliveries were 2601 during the study period. Out of which 63 (2.42%) were found to be ectopic pregnancies and 57 (1.99%) were diagnosed as ruptured ectopic pregnancies. Maximum number of patients (70.17%) were between 21 and 30 years of age. As far as parity is concerned only 12.29 % of patients were primigravida where as 70.71% patients were multigravida. Previous history of pelvic inflammatory disease was associated among maximum number of cases i.e 50.87% of total number of cases. Among other risk factors, previous abortions, previous ectopic pregnancies and history of infertility treatment were the prime ones. Maximum number of patients were from lower and lower middle class socioeconomic status. Ampullary type of Tubal ectopic pregnancies were found to be the commonest ones. Two cornual pregnancies and two ovarian pregnancies were also found in this series. In 85.97 % of patients the amount of hemoperitoneum was found to be more than 500 ml.Conclusions: There is high incidence rate of ectopic pregnancy and low rate of diagnosis before rupture occurs in developing nations as in our scenario. Pelvic inflammatory disease, Maternal education, socioeconomic status, parity and history of subfertilty are the risk factors associated with ruptured ectopic pregnancy. Effective efforts should be taken to encourage the level of education and improve the rate of diagnosis among health care providers before the occurrence of rupture

Retrospective analysis of donor deferral for plateletpheresis at a regional transfusion center, in North-West India

 Background: Single donor platelet (SDP) is one of the valuable component for thrombocytopenic patients for obtaining good post transfusion count increment, good yield of product is required. Proper donor selection has a crucial role in in safety and quality of product therefore proper screening of donor is mandatory. The aim was to find out reasons and frequency of plateletpheresis donor deferral and to encourage safety of donor for recruitment of new SDP donors.Methods: A retrospective analysis of data was done over a period of 1 year from June 2018 to May 2019 from the data centre of the institute.Results: Out of 1365 donors, 1200 were selected for plateletpheresis procedure and remaining 165 donors were deferred for various reasons. The predominant age of donors ranges from 25-35 years. Among the deferred donors temporary donors accounted for 93.33% and permanently deferred donors were 6.61. Most common cause for deferral were poor venous access 52 (31.51%). Low platelet counts 32 (19.39), low Hb 26 (15.75%), underweight 24 (14.54%), under medication 9 (5.45%), alcohol intake within 24 hours 6 (3.63%) and others like tattoos, infections/inflammations at phlebotomy sites 5 (3.03%) and most common reason for permanent deferral were sero-positivity for HbsAg 6 (3.63%), chronic diseases 4 (2.42%) (cardiovascular diseases bronchial asthma), others 1 (0.6%).Conclusions: For obtaining good yield of product, proper donor screening is required. Temporary deferred donors should be counselled properly and encouraged for further donation when comes under selection criteria. Donor selection criteria for apheresis may be revised

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE OF JAHAR MOHRA PISHTI: A POTENT CARDIO TONIC

In the era of science and sagacity every sighting needs proofs and confirmations of its authenticity and when it comes to a medicinal preparation, the qualms are a step higher. Thus establishing pharmacopeial standards for a potent cardiotonic like Jahar Mohra Pishti is the need of time. Till date no work has been performed on standard operating procedure or standardization of Jahar Mohra. So, various available data was collected for complete documentation in terms of chemical composition, crystal structure, physicochemical analysis, therapeutic activity and method of proper storage so as to draw a standard operating procedure for the formulation.Jahar Mohra is named as Naga Pashana in most of the classical text of Ayurveda. Chemical formula for Jahar Mohra was evaluated through results of XRD and was Hydrous Magnesium Silicate i.e. Mg3-xSi2O5(OH)4-2x which is a basic formula for Serpentine group of minerals. Three samples of Jahar Mohra Pishti were prepared as per Siddha Yoga Sangraha to set the Standard Operating Procedure. Raw material was purified with lukewarm demineralised water. The Pisthi was prepared by impregnating and triturating the powdered samples with Gulab Arka (Rose Water) for 14 times. Observations were recorded during each step and a conclusion was drawn

Influences of Various Parameters on Sound Absorption Properties of Vetiver Grass Fiber-based Developed Composite Material

422-429Recently, the trend of natural fibers based eco-friendly materials utilization in the field of acoustic application has been growing rapidly in place of traditional synthetic materials to counter environmental issues, due to their cheap processing cost and other several advantages. In this work, sound absorption and thermal insulation properties of the vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) based material have been investigated. Efforts have been carried out in developing porous vetiver grass fibers based composite material. The developed samples tested for the sound absorption coefficient (alpha) over a wide range of frequencies (100 Hz – 4000 Hz) by the reverberation chamber method as per IS 8225-1987/ISO 354- 2003/ASTM 423-909-19 and noise reduction coefficient (NRC) also been calculated. The experimental outcome proved that vetiver grass-based manufactured material has comparable sound absorption to already developed traditional synthetic materials. Further, two different bulk densities, thickness and fibre lengths-based samples were developed and their sound absorption acoustic performances were evaluated to see the influences of these parameters on sound absorption characteristics. Apart from these, some required physical properties as per application requirements were also discussed. However, in this study major focus has been done on acoustical properties

Tubarial salivary glands on PSMA ligands based PET imaging and post 177Lu PSMA therapy scan: reiterating its importance

68Ga-PSMA PET/CT has been routinely utilized in patients with intermediate to high-risk category prostate carcinoma for staging, biochemical recurrence and before planning the PSMA radioligand therapy (RLT). 177Lu-PSMA RLT has also been approved by FDA as a novel treatment modality in metastatic carcinoma prostate patients who have failed to other lines of treatment. The non-target organs like salivary and lacrimal glands have shown to have high physiological PSMA uptake on PSMA PET/CT. Recently, strong uptake of PSMA ligand has also been noted in the dorsal wall of the nasopharynx in the region of torus tubarius on PSMA PET/CT, which has led to the identification of new pair of salivary gland structures called “tubarial salivary glands”. The clinical significance of these distinct anatomical structures lies in the fact these structures might be involved in a variety of immune related, inflammatory disorders, malignancies and could be a probable organ at risk during radiotherapy in case of head and neck malignancies, causing adverse effects to the patient

Association between Technical Performance Scores and neurodevelopmental outcomes after congenital cardiac surgery

ObjectivesTechnical Performance Score (TPS) has been shown to have a strong association with early and late outcomes after congenital cardiac surgery, with greater morbidity and reintervention in children with major residual lesions (TPS class 3). We sought to explore the effect of TPS on the neurodevelopmental outcomes.MethodsAll infants undergoing cardiac surgery, excluding those with trisomy 21, were offered neurodevelopmental testing at 1 year of age using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 3rd edition. TPSs from the discharge echocardiograms were graded as class 1 (optimal), class 2 (minor residual), or class 3 (major residual). Multivariate regression analysis was performed using patient characteristics and preoperative variables.ResultsNeurodevelopmental testing was performed in 140 patients at a median age of 16 months. Of these, 28 (20%) had single ventricle palliation; 39 (28%) were in Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery category 4 to 6. Significant differences between the groups were found in the cognitive (P = .01) and motor (P = .05) domains, with subjects in TPS class 3 having significantly lower cognitive and motor composite scores. The scores did not vary significantly according to single ventricle versus biventricular repair or Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery categorization. In multivariate modeling, class 3 TPS remained significantly associated with a lower Bayley cognitive score (P = .02), with a trend toward a lower Bayley motor score (P = .08).ConclusionsWe found that TPS is an independent predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes after infant heart surgery. Future research should explore whether a structured program of intraoperative recognition and intervention on residual lesions can improve the TPS and neurodevelopmental outcomes

Indigenous Development of Acoustic Sounder (SODAR) in India as an Upgraded Technology for Environmental Protection: A Review

Sound Detection and Ranging (SODAR) has moved to the forefront of consumer technology due to the pressing need toengage the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) in environmental protection. An active ground-based remote sensingsystem (SODAR) is used to determine the lower-atmosphere wind profile and temperature structure. SODAR can detectturbulence parameters in the ABL from a distance and can be used for wind profiling. SODAR, with its significantlyenhanced capability, is expected to be a futuristic remote sensing device with several uses in the near future. Including anemphasis on its applications and current developments, this article examines SODAR's early history, with a review of Indianstudies. The article examines past breakthroughs in SODAR as well as its advancement and applications, with an emphasison India due to the worldwide nature of SODAR research. Additionally, the article discusses how effective SODAR is inprotecting the environment and how important it is going forward. After summarising the applications, various opportunitiesand barriers incurred in SODAR use, a proposed review article to provide insights into previously understudied, unstudied,and studied research work accomplished on SODAR in India is constructed. The article accentuates the role of SODAR asan environmental safeguarding tool

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms