Training interventions for improving telephone consultation skills in clinicians

The objectives are as follows: To assess the effectiveness of training interventions on clinician telephone skills

A CLINICAL STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF KARPASASTHYADI TAILA NASYA, PHYSIOTHERAPY AND A COMBINATION OF BOTH IN CERVICAL SPONDYLOSIS

Present era is a period of modernization and fast life. Due to the advancement in life style people undergo many unwanted practices like faulty dietetic habits, improper sitting posture, continuous work in one posture and overexertion, load bearing movements during travelling and sports all these factors create undue pressure and compressive injury to the spine and also responsible for early degenerative changes in bodily tissue which play an important role in producing disease like cervical spondylosis. In this way, this disease is now becoming a significant threat to the working population due to its progressive nature. The Nasya Karma is considered as the best procedure for diseases of head and neck. Physiotherapy provides several benefits in relieving pain and spasm. It can help to maintain the strength of the neck muscles and improve the flexibility of the neck through therapeutic neck exercises and other form of treatment such as manipulation, US, SWD, IFT etc. These two different modes of treatment having its own importance in the management of cervical spondylosis so the present study has been conducted to evaluate the combined effects of these therapies. Results & Conclusion: All the three groups have given a highly significant improvement in reducing the signs and symptoms of cervical spondylosis. While comparing, it was also statistically proved that Nasya along with Physiotherapy is more effective than either Nasya or Physiotherapy alone in reducing the signs and symptoms of cervical spondylosis

Evaluation of the diagnostic value of brain natriuretic peptide for detection of left ventricular systolic dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: One of the most critical health concerns of our day is acute deterioration of chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). Detecting concurrent heart illness in these individuals might be challenging.Objective: Aims of this study were determining the diagnostic value of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels in the identification of acute COPD exacerbations (AECOPD) that were linked with left ventricular (LV) dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension. Methods: a prospective study of 100 patients with acute COPD exacerbations was done. All research participants were subjected to history taking, clinical examination, laboratory testing, blood gas analysis, echocardiography, and NT-pro BNP plasma level estimation.Results: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for BNP as a diagnostic for LV systolic dysfunction showed that area under the curve (AUC) was 0.923 at cut off point of 72.1 ng/ml with sensitivity of 93.3% and specificity of 84.6% (P<0.001).Conclusion: Heart failure is confirmed when the average natriuretic (NT)-BNP level in the left ventricle during AECOPD is higher than normal, which should prompt quick treatment for both conditions

Now is the time for radical action on racial health inequalities

A new report by the NHS Race and Health Observatory makes robust recommendations—we must act on them, write Mohammad S Razai and colleagues

Determination and Distribution Map for Radionuclides in Soil Samples from Different Location by Gamma Spectrometry Using Software Analysis

The fundamental goal of the current study is to determine the mean activity concentrations of natural and artificial radionuclides of 226Ra, 232Th, 40K, and 137Cs using gamma spectrometry for three locations, in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, which are significant and vital countries in the Middle East. The mean absorbed dose rate equals 22.35, 28.96, and 43.34 nGy h-1 for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The results are consistent with international reports. The dose contribution percentages for investigated locations are 24 %, 30 %, and 46 % for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq, respectively. The obtained results were clarified by statistical measurements using one-way ANOVA test to determine the distribution and differences between the averages of the three groups under study, as they may be influenced by geological variations and human intervention. It was found that the Iraq samples followed a symmetrical, standard normal distribution, while samples from Egypt and Saudi Arabia did not. Statistically significant differences were found between the data from the three countries

Association of Helicobacter pylori infection and severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

Background: There is a strong correlation between Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection and coronary artery disease (CAD). There is also a strong correlation between HP infection and the severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with CAD. Our study determined the association of HP infection and severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with suspected CAD. Methods: A prospective study of 100 individuals who had coronary angiography for coronary atherosclerosis was conducted. Body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, leukocyte count, hemoglobin, and urea breath test were all done on the patients. Coronary angiograms were graded based on vascular and angiographic severity scores. Results: Triglyceride, (TG), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), C- Reactive Protein (CRP), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), vessel score, and angiographic severity score all showed high correlations with Gensini score. There was a substantial association between vessel score and TG, LDL and angiographic severity score. It was found that angiographic severity score has a substantial positive link to a person's BMI; LDL; CRP; ESR, and vessel score. Conclusion: Although HP infection has been linked to an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), established risk variables outweigh their potential impact

Portfolio optimisation with higher moments of risk at the Pakistan Stock Exchange

Stock markets play an important role in spurring economic growth and development through diversification opportunities. However, diversification cannot be truly achieved if we continue to ignore additional dimensions of risk, namely skewness and kurtosis. This study incorporates higher moments of risk to form a mean-varianceskewness-kurtosis based framework for portfolio optimisation. Inclusion of higher moments in optimisation framework acknowledges the risk of asymmetric returns and fat-tail risk and can help investors in formulating optimal portfolios of stocks which can be significantly divergent from the ones they obtain through the Markowitz meanvariance optimisation. Our results confirm the presence of tradeoff between returns and additional dimensions of risk in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and strongly suggest including them in the optimisation framework to avoid sub-optimal decisions and to curtail exposure towards higher moments of risks

Oxide Film Growth on Copper in Neutral Aqueous Solutions

The copper electrode potentials measured by the open circuit potential method in strongly aerated solutions of SO4-2, Cl-, Br-, I-, CrO4-2, CO3-2, and NO2- with difference concentrations, till steady state values are attained. The copper electrode potentials of the all experiments increase from negative to more positive values indicating oxide film growth. The copper oxide film thickness attains maximum value at low and high concentrations of each aggressive and inhibitive anions respectively. The rate of oxide film thickening is determined by use the relation: E = a + b log t, where a and b are constants. The concentration of the inhibitive anions, CrO4-2, CO3-2, and NO2- that can withstand a certain concentration of the aggressive ions, , Cl-, Br-, and I-, varies due to the relation: logC inh. = A + n logC agg., where A and n are constants. The all experiments were investigated at 25oC in all electrolytes. Keywords: Copper; oxide growth; passivity; open circuit potential

Stanley's conjecture for critical ideals

Let S=K[x_1,x_2,...,x_n] be a polynomial ring in n variables over a field K. Stanley's conjecture holds for the modules I and S/I, when I is a critical monomial ideal. We calculate the Stanley depth of S/I when I is a canonical critical monomial ideal. For non critical monomial ideals we show the existence of a Stanley ideal with the same depth and Hilbert function.Comment: 5 page