Assessing Household Catastrophic Healthcare Expenditure and its Associated Factors: A Study in a North-Eastern State of India

Background: Out-of-pocket expenses (OOPE) are the primary means of funding healthcare costs in developing nations, and when the cost is too high, it leads to catastrophic healthcare expenditures (CHE). Aim & Objective: This study aimed to assess the proportion of households that faced CHE and also examined the associated factors that determine CHE at the household level. Methods and Material: Between September 2020 and February 2021, a cross-sectional study covering a sample of 771 households was conducted in four districts of Assam. A multistage sampling design was employed to select the sample households. Statistical analysis used: Binary logistic regression analysis has been performed to ascertain the factors that could determine household CHE. Results: 23% households had experienced CHE, high dependence on the private healthcare system. Monthly household income, duration of illness, presence of children under five years of age and elderly members, education of household head, and health insurance were the significant factors influencing CHE. Conclusions: The study identified the growing use of private healthcare services as a major concern that contributes to the prevalence of CHE. To make all healthcare services accessible and affordable and to lower OOP on healthcare, it is also crucial to improve the infrastructure and quality of the public healthcare system in rural and remote locations

A study on interfacial activities between Nb and liquid Al in static and dynamic condition

In the present study, an effort has been made to investigate the interfacial activities between the solid Niobium and liquid Aluminium. Aluminium was melted at 750 °C temperature and subsequently, solid niobium was immersed into the liquid aluminium and held for different time intervals. The study was conducted in static as well as dynamic conditions. Temperature and time were similar for both static and dynamic conditions. After solidification, the Nb-Al interface was studied under optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, EDS and X-Ray diffraction analyzer. The analysis revealed that there was no change in the dimension of Nb sample and no intermetallic compound formed on the surface or subsurface of solid Niobium under present experimental condition

Demographic and clinico-pathological profile of carcinoma stomach in a tertiary referral centre of Eastern India

Objectives: This prospective study was done to assess the incidence, clinical presentations, histopathological subtypes of gastric adenocarcinoma in a referral institute of Eastern India. Methods: The patients admitted with diagnosis of gastric carcinoma in a tertiary referral hospital in Eastern India between January2006 to December2010 were included in this study. Data were compiled and analyzed with regards to their age, sex, socioeconomic status, their clinical presentations, site of lesion & histopathological subtypes. Results: 150 patients were included in this study of which 50 patients were of ≤50 years age. The median age group was 57 years. The male: female ratio was 2.3:1. Most of the patients were from lower socioeconomic strata (55.33%). Anemia (41.33%) and weight loss (38%) were the predominant presenting features irrespective of age, whereas gastric outlet obstruction due to antral growths was the commonest presentation in patients of ≤50 years age group. The most common histopathological type was adenocarcinoma; patients of≤50 years of age group presented with well differentiated and moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma while those in >50 years age group with poorly differentiated growth. Most (82.66%) of the patients presented with advanced growth(T3/T4). Conclusion: 1) The incidence of gastric carcinoma in patients younger than 50 years was more common than Western world. 2) Patients are presenting more with lesion in distal stomach than Western world. 3) Gastric outlet obstruction and metastatic disease are commoner than abdominal lump and upper GI bleeding. The latter being the commoner presentations in Western world. 4) Regarding the histological type, adenocarcinoma are commoner than in Western world and 5) Patients with signet cell subtype are much less than Western world

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Gene expression profiling data of Schizosaccharomyces pombe under nitrosative stress using differential display

Excess production of nitric oxide (NO) and reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNIs) causes nitrosative stress on cells. Schizosaccharomyces pombe was used as a model to study nitrosative stress response. In the present data article, we have used differential display to identify the differentially expressed genes in the fission yeast under nitrosative stress conditions. We have used pure NO donor compound detaNONOate at final concentrations of 0.1 mM and 1 mM to treat the cells for 15 min alongside control before studying their gene expression profiles. At both the treated conditions, we identified genes which were commonly repressed while several genes were induced upon both 0.1 mM and 1 mM treatments. The differentially expressed genes were further analyzed in DAVID and categorized into several different pathways. Keywords: Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Nitric oxide, Nitrosative stress, Differential display analysi